Contracted
by Sora Tsuiki
Summary: Nobody was around to tell Naruto not to talk to strangers, let alone make a deal with them. So on one fateful night in her childhood, how was she supposed to know the repercussions of a simple contract? See how Naruto, her life now changed forever, lives up to her expectations and dreams with her new curse. Fate doesn't seem to favor the innocent. Fem!Naru
1. Prologue: Contracts

**So... this is basically a redux of my old story that will soon be taken down due to my... lack of confidence in it. In this one, Naruto is a girl :)**

The light pitter-patter of a child's feet was drowned out by the heavier plods of an adult. For every two or three splashes that resulted from the child in the rain water, one splash would be heard from the other. Such was the difference in their heights.

The kid, whose blonde hair and ragged clothes were caked with grime, clutched a fat coin pouch close to her erratically beating heart. With a quick glance back at her pursuer, cerulean orbs expanded wide. The grownup was gradually advancing and continued to do so even as the blonde attempted to speed her run up. Slowly, ever so slowly, the distance between them closed.

The breaths out of her tiny body were laborious and the movements of her tiny limbs became sluggish. The girl tripped over her foot and scraped her knee. Hastily picking herself up, the blonde tried to dash around a corner and into in alley to escape the ever-closer chuckles of her pursuer. Too bad stubby six year-old legs held nowhere near enough strength to outrun a fully fledged adult, no matter the civilian status.

Now, it wasn't like the streets were empty. The earlier downpour of rain hadn't scared everyone into shelter. In fact, there were plenty of people out and about and plenty of people able to stop their fellow villager from hounding the child. Only the problem wasn't that they _couldn't_ help the tiny kid, but that they_ wouldn't_. They actually went out of their way to selectively blind themselves of the two humans straying off into one of the many alleys of Konohagakure. To them, a child disappearing in the labyrinthine alleys of Konoha's red light district wasn't a rare sight.

Luckily or not for the girl, someone new was walking around the red lights district this day. Luckily or not for the girl, that someone zoned in on her and her chaser before releasing a feral grin and following them. Burgundy eyes shown with maniac glee as their owner slyly slid into the alley behind the two.

_B_R_E_A_K_

"You filthy rat, how dare you try to steal from me! You lowly trash!" When the man had finally cornered the child, he exploded with rage, no longer under the public façade of calm.

Terrified and trapped into a corner, the girl trembled out a brave reply: "I-I'm no trash! I'm Uzumaki Naruto, future h-hero of Konohaga-gakure!" Naruto's fragile bravado crumbled, however, as the man barked out a low laugh.

"Future hero, you say?" the man asked, a menacing gleam overtaking his eyes. "Why, you're already the destroyer and demon of Konoha, idiot! Simply being a human is out of you're league, let alone you being a savior!" He started skulking toward the miniscule, whimpering body, already curled inward to subconsciously protect its vital organs. The pouch full of money lay abandoned to the side, ignored.

"N-no…I'm Naruto Uzu-zumaki the future-"

"Only a demon hiding in a lamb's skin."  
"No! I'm Narut-" The repetitive speech was cutoff abruptly as the man's fist, curiously now harboring a sharp kunai knife, began to fall en route to Naruto's head. Her wide eyes watched through her tear-blurred vision as her end was coming, and fast. An unfurling, dark heat boiled in her stomach, slamming against chakra pathways and attempting to plow through immature chakra coils that refused to permit access. Clenching her eyes close, she came to naïve terms with her untimely death as she silently whimpered against the bubbling burn in her stomach.

Yet, the last thing she felt wasn't the sharp pain of a knife being stabbed through her temple nor the dull nothingness of death. Instead, she felt surprisingly warm, and soft, and calm. She felt comfortable and in a nice glow of safety. She felt no more… bubbling.

"Wh-who are you? Why would you stop me from killing that mongrel?" screamed the man. His voice bounced of the close walls of the alley and up into the cloudy sky above.

"I'm you're…" there was a pause in the new and silky voice, as if a thought process was running through the options of the words to be uttered next. Naruto determined the tone to be evidently female before figuring out that it was spoken almost directly next to her ear. She wanted to open her eyes, to gaze at her savior's face and see if it emulated that beautiful savant she already began to picture in her mind, but a smooth, warm hand settled over them, as if telling the girl to keep her eyes shut. Who was she to argue with her savior?

As if her savior's thought process had reached a conclusion, words gracefully bubbled out of her mouth. "Termination."

Naruto kept her eyes shut.

A quick loss of contented heat was followed by a roar of pain, a dull thud of a body, and a sticky and unnervingly hot substance finding rest across her body. Naruto dogmatically kept her eyes from seeing as she reached a sleeve-covered arm up to struggle to clean off her grubby face. In the midst of her actions, she tilted her head to the side in order to ascertain the sound of something being dragged across the ground. _What just happened…?_

With an '_Oomph!_' and a tell-tale sound of hands being swiped together to clear off dust, Naruto deemed it safe to unbolt her eyes.

Striding towards her with a crookedly cocky smile was a girl, about sixteen to seventeen in age, with some of the most distinctive features she'd ever seen. Though an unremarkable five-foot-five, the girl's legs looked almost unnaturally long. Her athletic build and sun-kissed skin was covered by black baggy pants, hanging low enough on her hips to reveal a perfectly toned midriff, tucked aesthetically into dark maroon calf length boots that molded to slender legs. The heels, belts, and other embellishments were outlined with dull gold.

On her torso lay a skintight, black turtleneck with the sleeves cleanly cut off, the cloth attaching at the base of the neck. The solid black cloth gave way into about an inch of black mesh at the middle of her ribs, stopping a little above the girl's belly button. Two loose kimono styled sleeves covered both of her arms with a good amount of extra maroon silk.

As she took in her savant's cherry red and orange hair, cut short and spiky at the nape of her neck with the exception of a single beaded and weaved sliver resting against her shoulder, as well as the headband that held her sweeping bangs out of her face, Naruto unceremoniously gaped in awe. The headband, thickly covering her entire forehead and some of her pristinely plucked eyebrows, was a base of yellow with maroon triangular designs, matching her burgundy eyes that curved in prideful glee. Her heart shape face strived to keep a modestly heroic expression, but lost it quickly as she repositioned her hair so that it grouped mainly towards the left of her face.

Still, this was a shinobi village and, as such, her attire wasn't anything to gawk at. No, instead Naruto was gawking at her unveiled skin with childish abandon, unaware of the pompous gaze that permitted the girl to have. On the right side of her body, twirling from underneath her turtleneck to across her shoulder and hidden under her sleeves and shirt, was an amass of archaic symbols and letters twisting around. They almost glowed in the hazy light of the stormy sky.

This… bad_ass_ chick saved her.

"So," she began amicably, picking her childish body up from her armpits before settling Naruto in between her legs as she sat down against one of the soiled walls, "you said you're name was Uzumaki Naruto, Imouto?"

The blonde girl could only nod numbly and lean closer to her pleasant warmth.

"What an adorable name: Maelstrom…" She sighed almost dreamily. Her purple-red eyes met Naruto's sincere blue ones. "Well, Imouto, those from where I come from call me Kazia. Pleased to meet you!" She flashed that crookedly mischievous grin again.

"O-ohaiyo, Kazia-nee," Naruto practically whispered, not believing she was truly there. She reached her hand up to her savior's face, which the red-head amusedly allowed, and clumsily felt her hair and ran stubby fingers over her eyes. Kazia had to hold both a laugh.

With more and more confidence brimming in her little chest, Naruto began to excitedly bounce in the female's lap, yipping out incessant chants of, "Kazia-nee! Kazia-nee!"

The receiver of her affections shifted almost uncomfortably under her attention.

"Kazia-nee! Thank you, thank you, thank you! Thank you for saving me, Kazia-nee!"

_Damn brat just _loves_ saying that, doesn't she_, the redhead thought tiredly before placing her hand playfully on top of her unruly hair.

"Ok, ok, Imouto! Calm the fuck down, will you? Jeesh…" She stopped bouncing and looked pitifully up at her, like a berated puppy. She smiled at that. And that smile only grew as she opened her mouth again. "Good. Now, where I…come from, one favor is deserving of another favor in return, got it? Like… give and take if you will."

Naruto's head nodded wildly on her neck, sporadically smacking Kazia's chin with her hair. Once again, the older girl smacked her hand atop Naruto's head and positioned it to look at her.

"Continuing on…While me saving you from a gruesome death began more along the lines of a whim," she explained easily, sliding her fingers through knotted hair, "I saw something unexpectedly great and decided to reconsider my whim and classify it as a favor instead. As such, I expect something in return."

Naruto ignorantly whacked Kazia's painful fingers out of her hair before they tore apart her sensitive scalp before answering in a saddened voice, "But Kazia-nee, I have nothing to give to you…"

"Nonsense. There's always something one can give," she answered simply.

"But-" Naruto was once again cut off as Kazia shifted her off her legs and stood up. Gazing deeply into the young girl's eyes, Kazia slowly bit her thumb and dragged the bleeding digit underneath her silk sleeve. The result was instantaneous. With a slight spike of power, a small scroll poofed into existence in between the pair.

In a scholarly fashion, Kazia pushed a make believe pair of glasses up the bridge of her nose. "This, dear Imouto, is a contract. Do you know what a contract is?"

"Like a su…summoning contract, yeah?"

A feral smile. "Yeah, in order to make agreements with the summons, you need to sign their contract. Only this one is with me. And this one makes you my _personal_ gladiator," she clarified. The girl's jubilant and willing smile almost made Kazia feel guilty for what she was about to do. _Almost_. "I want you to sign it and serve me when the time comes."

Looking unabashedly happy and determined, Naruto quickly squealed out a yes.

Without even a blink and without Naruto noticing anything, Kazia had taken the toddler's hand into hers and ripped the palm open with her nails. Unraveling the scroll on the ground with her foot, she swiftly forced Naruto to palm its surface and leave a bloody print. Releasing her hand, Kazia slit her own open and placed her palm print on top of Naruto's before chanting, "I, Edyta Kaziamera of the disordered law, deem this contract valid with this girl, his Sakkaku, Uzumaki Naruto." Burgundy eyes seared into blue. "This contract will be complete when my gladiator speaks her Honto and she shall fight on my behalf."

Bending down slowly, Kazia's thin lips tickled at Naruto's earlobe. "Speak your truth, and become mine," she whispered. Placing a soft kiss just behind the child's ear, the bloody palm prints swirling into each other, shifting colors and shapes ferociously. "Finish the binding…"

Naruto's lips moved breathless words out of her mouth, and the palm marks solidified into a black symbol, mimicked by the skin where Kazia kissed.

"Thank you, Imouto. We're even." Flickering out of sight, Kazia tenderly placed the limp Naruto on the ground, surrounded by the bloodied walls and dirt that were the remains of one Hatsuki Shimon, the idiotic civilian who tried to lay a hand on the Goddess of Destruction's new interest and new warrior.

**Please review! :)**


	2. A Hokage's Plight

**Still not much of a comment up here, but I guess that's cuz I've already posted these chapters before and I'm a little tired... Either way! look forward to more informative ANs when the newer chapters are posted ;DD Until then... *Don't own Naruto***

Like every other day at almost any time, the Hokage of Konoha was sitting at his desk lost in a plethora of papers. His Hokage hat precariously wobbled by his elbow, gradually being pushed off as more papers appeared on the oak surface. The wrinkled man sighed, rubbing at his temples and the hat tumbled to the floor with the movement.

A sigh slipped past an old wizened man's lips as he furiously read and stamped several documents. His ceremonial robes, red and white, hang heavily on his weakening shoulders, as did the burdens of his position.

Sure, you'd think that in a time of peace, the Hokage's workload would decrease, yet the opposite happened. Despite being the military leader of Konohagakure, the villagers all seemed to think that, now he wasn't worried about keeping them all from slaughter, he had to take care of their business deals, their property disputes, their civilian matters. These aspects of Konoha politics should have been given to the civilian council, not to him. He was shinobi. And now he had to divine what his work was before doing it while sending the rest towards the council as well. If they wanted him to deal with it, make it a mission for his ninja.

Another shaky breath slithered through his dry lips. Damnit, he had better things to worry about than these trivial matters. Like, in a theoretical instance, a girl he treated like a granddaughter being attacked in broad daylight and having to—probably—kill said assailant to save herself. Oh wait, that really did happen, and that was the uncomplicated part.

No, the real pain in the ass came from the fact that the child was the container of the most powerful bijuu of the elemental nations and that her memory of the event was severely lacking. That, combined with the people's fear of a possibly unstable seal as well as the…condition of the corpse, led to one hell of a debate on what to do with the jinchuuriki.

Normally he could simply tell off the civilian council and take contol as Konoha's militaristic dictator that he was, but Naruto was a civilian. The victim was a civilian. The entire incident would be civilian-jurisdiction if not for the fact that Naruto was the object of an ANBU mission, and this severely cut into his powers to interfere.

The old man's eyes slowly dragged his vision across his desk, panning past the impossibly huge piles of mission reports, mission assignments, wrongly placed civilian matters, and other documents the Hokage had to deal with. When his eyes stop, they rested on the image of a single file on the corner of his desk, subconsciously left bereft of any messy papers around it. He slowly, painstakingly, picked the folder up.

_Date: May 19th_

_Time: 16:34_

_Report: Inoshishi (Boar)_

_Doing daily rounds, checking up on the Target as Leader ordered. When arrived at the house, Target missing. No sign of break-in or struggle, Target must have left by own free will. Checked usual places: Hokage Monument, Ichiraku's, playground, Hokage Tower. Target wasn't found. Felt a spike of unusual presence, can't be completely sure as to call it chakra. Followed it to District Four and down an alley. By now, presence was gone, however when arrived, witnessed Target sleeping in the middle of an exceedingly disfigured body with copious amounts of blood, all the victim's. Target had minor injuries and no blood anywhere on her person other than where her body touched while sleeping. When approached, Target woke up and panicked at the blood and entrails before puking and passing out. Opinion: someone killed victim and placed unsuspecting Target at the scene to incriminate the girl._

The Hokage skipped the rest of the lengthy file: the medical report, the psychiatric diagnosis, the investigation, the offered punishments. He knew every word and every symbol in the report, and there was no need to waste his time once again looking through the details. Was it Naruto who killed the attacker? He himself didn't think so, but that didn't stop the others from believing it.

Luckily, most of the clan council was on his side on the matter of one Uzumaki Naruto, but still, all of the civilian council as well as a sprinkling of shinobi believed the jinchuuriki to be the murderer. Or more specifically, the beast she jailed inside her.

The Hokage clenched his hands, crushing a few papers within the manila folder. He was positive the cheerful blonde wasn't the perpetrator, but nobody saw anyone other than her and the victim enter and nobody could testify as to whether or not Naruto had killed the man or was simply a witness to the murder.

Sarutobi knew he wasn't supposed to show favorites, especially in his line of work where such favorites could be targeted for leverage, but the silly airheaded girl was always an exception, and this time would be no different. He had his best working on clearing the girl's name before she was exiled or killed by the foolish civilians.

"Hokage-sama, I brought him."

Sarutobi sighed out, "Alright, send him in."

The ANBU, his mask vaguely resembling that of a beaver, nodded before briefly leaving the spacious office. When he returned, a tall man followed him in. His silvery-gold hair, which was oddly let loose to fall to the middle of his back, and icy blue eyes identified him as a Yamanaka. It was the bright purple nail polish painted sloppily on his left hand, however, the identified him as Yamanaka Inoichi, the clan head.

"Hokage-sama," Inoichi greeted. As he flourished his hand to begin a bow, Sarutobi snorted and waved it off.

"Come now, Inoichi-kun, I'm far too tired for formalities." And indeed the old man looked it. With eye sockets sunken from hours of missed sleep, the God of Shinobi seemed as if he could sleep for three days straight.

A slight nod and an almost imperceptible smile. "Then let's get straight to it, Hokage-sama.

"It's been a week since you've asked for my expertise, and two weeks even since the incident occurred and so far she still can't recall anything after turning into the alley. When I took her to the fourth district, she could easily point out where she stole the money and even the exact route she took to the alley, but then a blank. It's possible she blocked the event from her mind, or it's even possible that a justu wiped it." Inoichi then paused, gazing at his superior through the corner of his eye. "It would be promising to find out what happened if I could look through her memories but," he ran a hand through his hair, "you specifically asked me not to. I may be one of the best even without it, but my clan jutsu is all that I believe may help now. As it is, Naruto may never remember."

Once again: sigh. He wanted, needed, confirmation that the girl wasn't the killer, but the Hokage didn't want to trespass into Naruto's personal secrets or invade her mind, he knew himself that it was the greatest intrusion of one's privacy. Not only that, but no one in the village could be certain as to how such a technique would effect the seal within the girl's mind.

"Are you certain of this?" A nod was his only answer. "And what of Naruto's mental state? Has she made any progress there?"

"Well…" the clan leader started before drifting off momentarily. A sharp look from the village leader put him right back to business. "She talks now, regularly even, though not as boisterously as before. Just last night she and my daughter," he peeked at his nails, "had quite a fun time last night talking about their excitement for the shinobi academy in a few months."

Sarutobi chuckled at the full-grown man, trying to look at his messy nails bashfully instead of proudly, and failing miserably. "What about her other habits?"

"Ahe's not afraid of walking around alone anymore and doesn't seem to be retaining her claustrophobia. Even her tic where she scratches her ear seems to be disappearing. However, she still refuses to look anyone in the eye or talk to anyone we don't specifically introduce her to."

Idly humming in thought, Sarutobi bent over and retrieved his hat from the floor. Naruto's mentality seemed to be reverting back to a stable state, albeit slowly, at the very least. Though who knows what kind of damage the accusations against her would cause. They could possibly open up her old wounds just in time to tear open fresh ones.

He needed a way to get the council off his back on this subject and put Naruto on the right path for the future. The only problem was that he couldn't see any plausible way out. Yet, at least.

Inoichi composedly waited for his leader to take respite from his thoughts, only moving to look through the window at Konoha's profile in the setting sun. It was such a nice view, a serene view. No wonder he'd always see the Hokage staring out at it. The pink-golden glow shimmied across the buildings and treetops, the bustle of village life filtered through the window to create a comfortable buzz in the back of your senses. Every once in a while, a shadow would dart from one rooftop to another before quickly disappearing. Tranquil and soothing.

"Hiruzen," a crotchety voice bumbled across the room. Both occupants looked towards the door to find the councilmen duo, none other than Homura and Koharu. Homura took the small silence as his invitation to continue, "We can only hold the other councilmen off for so long, Hiruzen. They're demanding 'retribution' or some nonsense like that."

"Shikaku has already attempted to sate their proposals without letting it get out of hand," Koharu picked up, staring seriously into her old teammates eyes, "but none of them are biting."

The Hokage unhurriedly placed his hat back atop his balding head and scowled before dismissing the younger shinobi of the room. Inoichi gladly left, happy to be returning to his home. When he left the office, Sarutobi began to speak, "Is there no way to get the off Naruto's back?" A shake of the head. "No evidence or witnessed accounts that could even begin to prove her innocence?" The old man knew the answer, just as he did merely thirty minutes ago, but still couldn't help but feel disheartened at the repetitive shake of Koharu's head.

The two council members shuffled their way across the room towards the black arm chairs situated in front of the desk. A strained silence trailed their movements, only the usual hum of civilian activity outside making noise. Sarutobi opened his mouth abruptly before clamping it shut again, ignoring the looks he got from the pair sitting in front of him. He hadn't felt this helpless since Minato had disappeared to seal off the Kyuubi. It didn't help that his helplessness was a byproduct of that night, a consequence of his inability to perform the Shikki Fuujin in his successor's stead.

"Hiruzen," Koharu croaked with a particular softness in her tone, attempting to find eye contact with her old teammate. He deftly dodged the action by turning his gaze downward. "Hiruzen." He still refused her gaze.

"Sarutobi!" Homura barked out on the woman's behalf. A sharp flash of chakra aided in breaking the leader of his stupor and facilitated Koharu's plea. The two soon found themselves staring into a diminished man's eyes. Diminished due to sorrow, regret, age, and burden. Diminished due to the knowledge that, despite his lofty position, he could in no way help the defenseless girl who served as a beacon to all his short-comings in the past decade. Koharu and Homura could only flinch at his visage.

Sarutobi let out a muted sob before angrily swiping his hand through the papers resting on his desk. They fell like confetti to the ground. His past time teammates openly gawked at his uncharacteristic behavior, at his moment of weakness in front of them with whom he had once trusted his life every day. He now was trusting them with his whole self, his feelings, intentionally or not. But he couldn't find it in himself to care. All the black, inky letters of the papers read the same way to him as they flittered to the ground. _…Lock her in the containment unit…She belongs as a weapon to be tightly controlled…Make a public execution of the murderer…Punish the demon…Kill the demon…_**_Kill it._**

"I'm too tired for this…" he whispered hoarsely into the office's silence. "I'm too…old for this." He barely wheezed these words out of his mouth. "How can I be a proper leader for this village when I can't even save a little girl from a crime I know she didn't commit?"

"Hiruzen, it's not your fault, they-"

"How could I let my people's fear and uncertainty lead them to such cruel ignorance?"

"Sarutobi, you know that-"

"Silence!" the Hokage growled, small amounts of his deadly chakra permeating the air. "I will not allow Uzumaki Naruto to fall victim to foolish misconceptions! If they wish to kill that child, Koharu, Homura, they will have to pry her from my cold fingers first. Naruto did not kill Hatsuki Shimon and-!"

"Of course she didn't kill that man, Hokage-sama. I did."

The unstable Hokage, as well as the two stupefied councilors, whipped their heads around to look at the speaker. A tall ninja with a porcelain ANBU mask stood tensely within the doorway, cold black holes where eye sockets were supposed to be bore directly into the Hokage's skin.

**Just wanted to say, I was tired of Koharu and Homura always being bad :( and ALSO, I kinda see how Sarutobi could be OOC, but I think his outburst when dealing with things he really cares about is understandable and he used to be teammates with these people, so obviously he trusts them well enough...**

**Please Review! :)**


	3. Two Birds, One Mission

**So I hope you guys like it! It's been all your favs and follows that made me write this chapter so fast! But I warn you... It was hard for me to write at times and I took a couple breaks (so I hope it's not repetitive...) so I hope it came out well and to your liking? ;D **

***Don't own Naruto***

"This council is being held with respect to case file 004369: the murder of Hatsuki Shimon," the Hokage intoned. His strong voice rebounded off the circular chamber, for once unimpeded by prattling councilmen. "This trial is to prove whether or not Uzumaki Naruto, resident of Konohagakure, is the perpetrator of this crime." That one name, that child's name, was what set off the whispers. Hateful, cruel whispers that called for bloodshed.

"Of course she did it, that scum! Let's just get this over with and kill it no-" The civilian councilmen was silenced with a glare from the village leader. A few moments of quiet reigned before a more diplomatic voice rose up.

"Hokage-sama, who else could have committed the crime? It was the only thing at the scene and it 'doesn't remember anything.' Sounds more like the beas- girl," the man quickly amended his speech when Sarutobi's eyes narrowed at him, "is trying to play up on the fact that it's a young child, appearing to be innocent."

"When you put it that way, it certainly does seem like the girl is guilty, huh?" Sarcasm poured out of a woman's mouth, unfettered.

"Of course she's guilty, Inuzuka. My clan and I have investigated several crimes, and none of them have been so obvious as this one." There was a flash of steely eyes as they turned from man with a rotund appearance to their village leader. "Hokage-sama, I request that Uzumaki be placed into the police's custody."

Anger boiled over several civilian councilmen. "Uchiha-sama, you can't be serious?! Surely its better that we simply killed the demon!"

"Now now Izumo, why cut off such a valuable resource? If we put Uzumaki in custody, there's a chance we can train her. If you put her in my care, in fact, I can put her under the old ROOT regime and transform her into the perfect weapon."

"Danzo," Koharu butted in smoothly, "while that sounds like a…pleasant idea, as the vessel grows older, emotion and free will are a prerequisite to keep the demon in check. Her and the Kyuubi's wills will clash and fight, and Naruto requires her own willpower to keep the beast's in check." Homura was nodding knowledgably next to him.

"Well obviously that willpower isn't enough to hold the Nine Tailed Fox back, it broke out to kill one of our people before retreating back into that so-called 'secure' seal!"

"Its already free from it's jail, Hokage-sama, we must kill it."

"Yeah! The demon's playing us!"

"Of course!"

"Yes! Kill it!"

The voices rose and rose as everyone attempted to talk over each other and be heard. For the most part these voices belonged to the civilian council calling out for the execution of Uzumaki Naruto, or to them, the demon of Konoha. Barbing insults on the girl, ad hominem attacks, nonsensical abuses that had nothing to do with the trial but everything to do with her conduct, how she looked, and what they perceived her as: a demon. None of the comments spoken by the civilian council held much weight in the discussion, they only spoke of the hatred they held for the girl. And the shinobi knew it.

A loud buzzing filled the room, drowning out the voices. The deafening sound grew in sound accordingly as the humans attempted to surmount it until finally, it grew too loud for them to ignore. They shut up.

"Finally…" the Aburame clan head muttered as his kikaichu relented. Shibi shifted his shoulders almost imperceptibly and shoved his hands into his pockets. He far preferred an organized trial. Why you ask? Because it is the most efficient way to do things and it will lead to the most correct verdict.

"To go back to the topic of this nonsensical trial… Though none of my clan was in direct proximity with the crime, I had members close enough to verify that Uzumaki didn't pull any chakra from the Kyuubi no Yoko. Therefore, the seal hasn't been loosened by her 'weak' will. In fact, no chakra that could be affiliated with Uzumaki was sensed."

"Well yeah, Hyuuga. That pup has one of the strongest dispositions I've ever seen, right Kuromaru? There's no way she'd let that smelly fox take her over." A low and guttural growl was the woman's reply. "Hell, even the guy with a stick up his ass knows this!" she howled, addressing the council. She still received a disapproving glare from the prim Hyuuga clan head.

"Well the fox is cunning; it may have tricked those eyes you're so proud of-"

"As if that were possible, Uchiha. It is your eyes that are clouded, letting such an offense happen on your watch," Hiashi icily replied.

"Offense?! That thing deserved being attacked for what it-!"

A monotonous voice drifted over the angry Uchiha's, "It is the Uchiha's job to carry out the law, Fugaku. Not to decide what constitutes as justice." Everyone in the circular chamber turned their heads to look at the speaker, his head lazily resting against his propped up hand and his eyes serenely shut.

"How dare you imply that we aren't providing significant protection for this village, Nara! What does your clan contribute, deer?"

"Uchiha! You're well aware that the Nara clan raises those deer to synthesize medicine!" The Akimichi clan head jumped to defend his friend.

A sigh muddled out of the Nara's lips. Lifting his head and painstakingly opening his eyes to the councilmen, Shikaku Nara drawled out, "No, Fugaku. You provide protection, plenty. However, your force seems quite biased on who deserves that protection, a decision given solely to the Hokage of this village."

Uchiha Fugaku angrily glared at the shadow user before quietly sitting back down into his seat. He could let this slide.

"Now that that is over with, will Inoichi-dono please give his report on the child?"

Standing up, Yamanaka Inoichi waited stoically for the chamber to become silent. "I do not believe that Naruto-kun could have summoned the Kyuubi or even attacked the victim. In fact, I would stake not only my life on it, but also my position as clan head." Whispers proliferated the chamber, some angry, some confused, some relieved. "Her mind showed no reminiscence of using the demon's chakra or even coming in contact with the being. Neither does her mind recall attacking Hatsuki Shimon. Evidence points to her passing out after sustaining several injuries." A pause. "Also, Naruto's conscious mentality matches more with the psychology of a victim who refuses to lash out, believing that it was something she did to deserve the attack and accept it as punishment."

"Thank you, Inoichi-kun. I will add to this," declared the Hokage, "that the girl's chakra coils showed no signs of chakra burns that would follow the use of the Kyuubi's chakra."

Angry roars lifted up in the room, all complaining along the lines of, "Hokage-sama! The demon is fooling you with it's cunning!" Sarutobi Hiruzen sighed sadly at the lack of flexibility in the council's eyes.

"How rude of us," the sly voice of Danzo riled up. "We're talking about this girl as if she weren't here. Yet, I know for a fact, that she is standing right outside this room. Why don't we invite her in so she can defend herself?" The Hokage's eyes widened in surprise. "Yajirushi, why don't you bring that child in?" A shadow flickered behind the one-eyed councilman before the door to chamber opened, displaying a young girl with cerulean eyes.

Her semi-long blond hair was bundled on one side of her shoulder due to her nervous pulling on it. Her light pink lips trembled lightly as she stumbled into the center of the room. Eventually she paused roughly in the middle of the chamber.

"Naruto-chan…" The Hokage didn't plan this, the ANBU wouldn't be here for another couple minutes!

"Uzumaki Naruto," Danzo boomed out, smirking triumphantly at the Sandaime, "you have been accused of the murder of Hatsuki Shimon, citizen of Konohagakure! What do you have to say in your defense?"

The tiny body crumpled in on itself slightly and trembling was evident. A small mumble escaped her lips.

"Excuse me? You'll have to speak up, girl" Danzo's tone of voice made Naruto flinch. She refused to look up at the people surrounding her.

"I didn't kill no one…"

"And your proof of this?"

"P-proof? I didn't kill no one." She reiterated, face pointing towards the floor. She might not have been able to see the hate-filled glares, but she could definitely tell they were there. They were always there in some shape or form. Whether they ignored her as she attempted to speak to them or whether they outwardly lashed out with spitting insults, they always had that look. That hate. Why did she deserve this? What did she do?

"Ok, Uzumaki. If you didn't kill Hatsuki, who did?" The venomous voice belonged to Uchiha Fugaku.

"I d-don't remember." Why did they attack her like this? She didn't do anything!

"Really? It is in my belief that you turned on your fellow citizen and killed him in cold-blood, demon."

"I didn't kill no one…" Tears prickled at her eyes, a small sniffle trapped in her nose. Why?

"You didn't cut his face to resemble yours as a cruel punishment? He has your marks, those 'whiskers' of yours."

"Seems like a confession to me, Rochu."

"I agree."

"I didn't kill no one." It was a squeak.

"What about cutting open his stomach so he would suffer? Let him bleed out after severing his voice box? Or the cuts on his arms, legs, and chest?"

"I do-don't remember nothing!" Naruto cried out, voice cracking. Sarutobi looked on, glancing at the door hastily. _Where are you?_

"If you 'can't remember,' then how do you know you didn't murder Hatsuki, demon? How do you know?"

Her tears began to run down her face.

"Yeah, even Hokage-sama can't deny it. You have no defense. You can't remember anything."

"You're just a demon, who cares if you killed one measly human? You're only the Kyu-"

A kunai sliced through the air, landing with a whistle just next to the civilian who was speaking. Eyes wide in fear, the last word on his lips sputtered into nothing.

"I do believe that mentioning this topic is forbidden, isn't that right Hokage-sama?"

"Late again? You should fix that before it becomes a life habit, Kakashi. Three times is more than enough."

"Hai, Hokage-sama," a silver haired man replied, his lack-luster voice rebounding off the walls. Though the teen's posture was perfectly straight and his uniform was in complete order—flak jacket on his shoulders, tattoo visible, mask fastened to his belt to show his superiors his face—his hair rejected the motif. Crazily splayed in disarray, the silver tresses denied gravity, only held back by the slanted Konoha headband strapped around his forehead. He took a quick glance at the girl in the center of the room, striding to stand next to her. She didn't move an inch to inspect him. Odd child.

"Name: Hatake Kakashi. Registration number: 009720. Rank: Anbu Captain, Inu."

Naruto flinched at the bold voice next her, but held strong, keeping her feet planted. She didn't know the teen beside her—from her inspection through her eyelashes she could place a guess at about nineteen—and from her experience with strangers, she didn't trust him. However, that bandaged man told her that Hokage-oji needed her here. She'd stay.

"I'm here to testify for case 004369 on behalf of Uzumaki Naruto." He shifted his gaze to the blond mop of hair next to him, her tense shoulders and shuddering body. He felt a little perplexed: how could she be so afraid of… this? His eye once again spanned the council room. "Unlike many of your beliefs, Naruto did not kill Shimon."

He inwardly frowned when he noticed the child's expression was one of shock, as if she expected no one to believe her.

Fugaku roared, "Hatake! You dare think that my men are liars?! Even after the gifts we've allowed you to keep?" A flicker of crimson flashed across his steely eyes. Kakashi's own grey eye only glimpsed up at him before locking with the Hokage's.

"I don't think, Uchiha. I know. I was the one who killed the civilian."

There was quiet in the council room. It was so quiet that one could probably hear the hidden ANBUs' breaths in the shadows and the tiny scurrying of mice in the walls. Silent.

Then the whispering started. It began with one man, who eventually incited his partner into talking, which then invited others to began, and soon a riot of not-so-hushed whispers permeated the air. The Hokage couldn't help but smirk at the results Kakashi's statement brought. It would definitely show the council their lack of control on the matter.

"Hatake, according to mission assignments and reports, you were away on a mission to Tea Country for eight days, returning the morning after Hatsuki was killed. You weren't even in the village," the Uchiha clan head stated, still murderously boring holes into the teen's skull.

"Actually," the ANBU captain replied, "I returned to Konoha on the seventh day. I was heading to the Hokage tower to turn in my mission report when I saw Naruto being attacked. I killed Hatsuki and told Naruto to go home before deciding that, since I was already late, I'd just go back to base and take a rest."

"That's not conduct very befitting of an ANBU captain, Hatake-san." The answer Danzo got was silence from the silver-haired teen.

"Hatake-san, are you admitting to the crime of the murder of a civilian?"

The Cyclops's eye slanted to the new speaker, one Koharu Utatane. She had a devilish smile on her face.

"What civilian?" Kakashi lackadaisically rebutted, playing into their pre-planned setup. "Hatsuki Shimon graduated from the shinobi academy as a genin with complete ninja training. He was a retired shinobi whose career went nowhere further than C-rank missions. As an ANBU, it was well within my duty to eliminate the threat to the civilian."

The silver-haired teen's recital didn't make many people happy, and Danzo was one of those people. "Hatake, what are you insinuating here?"

Kakashi didn't make a move to reply, instead leaving that to the Sandaime. "Law states that shinobi, active or not, falls under the Hokage's jurisdiction. Hatsuki Shimon falls into this group."

The civilian council roared in outrage. Fugaku slammed his hands against the surface in front of him. Danzo quietly seethed, glowering at the face of his superior. Thwarted again by his rival. Looking straight at the child still standing, confused and scared, in the middle of the room, he stood up and began his journey, limping out of the meeting. The civilians gaped at him, disbelief in their eyes. Danzo had just walked out on one of their best chances to rid themselves of the demon brat.

"Basically," a tired voice began, "if Kakashi can prove his assertion, then we are no longer needed. The decision of this trial would be up to the Hokage, making this trial a lot less troublesome."

Naras, Kakashi thought while gazing at the speaker, the smartest ninjas in history, yet also the laziest. "I have the documentation right here, Hokage-sama." He held out a manila folder, waiting for the ANBU behind the village leader to shunshin down to Kakashi and give the file to the Sandaime. Sarutobi flipped through the pages wordlessly, hardly even looking at the words. He already knew it was authentic, Koharu and Homura assured him of that, he was just glad that Kakashi was able to dig the file up in time.

"It's authentic."

Sarutobi looked up to see the chaos occurring in the council room. In general, the civilian council was howling with complaints, as if they would help with persecuting the young jinchuuriki. Uchiha Fugaku was now following Danzo's earlier example: storming out of the chambers with his sharingan flaring violently, three tomoe swirling. However, the rest of the clan heads accepted the news in stride, happy to be over with the trial. One Nara Shikaku was already sleeping with his head on the table in front of him while his neighbor Akimichi Chouza was happily munching on his snacks. Everything was back to normal.

A smile lifted Sarutobi's face as he finally was able to state, "With respect to the evidence provided, I, Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Sandaime Hokage of Konohagakure, judge Uzumaki Naruto as innocent. Dismissed." A flicker of his eyes met Kakashi's who remained next to the small girl at the center of the room. The commander bowed to his leader before striding out of the chambers. Everyone else followed in suit.

Sarutobi slowly creaked out of his chair, lifting the Hokage cap off his head to give his scalp a good scratch before beginning the long and tedious staircase down to the center of the floor where Naruto was waiting nervously. She looked like she was at a loss of what to do, poor child. He'd have to keep her under better surveillance from now on.

Finally reaching the oak floorboards that made up the bottom floor of the chamber, the Hokage strode in front of Naruto and crouched in front of her, his knees cracking with wear. Eye to eye with the blonde, Sarutobi could now notice the thin lines of moisture that had dried on her cheeks. Most of her skin was covered by black clothes too big for her tiny frame, and the man marveled at how the fabric hadn't already slipped off her. The usually relatively clean blond locks were now disheveled and slightly greasy. He winced at that; that girl of Inoichi's must be having an aneurism over it. However, Naruto's blue eyes were still bright and full of life, full of fire. He carefully placed his hands on her shoulders.

"Naruto-chan, it's all over now. Let's get you back home, ok?"

She nodded enthusiastically as a response, a twinge of a smile on her face. She would gladly leave this beehive of people shouting abuse at her. "Hai, Oji-chan!" She started without him, making a beeline for the door. Sarutobi felt a large weight lift off his shoulders at Naruto's smile and moved to follow her when she tripped over the slight step at the entrance. However, when he went to help her up, someone beat him to it.

Two gloved hands appeared underneath the young girl's armpits, lifting her up and onto her feet. At first, Naruto's head swiveled violently back and forth in the person's grip, attempting to meet eyes with her grandfather figure, but eventually she became calm and was smiling again. That was when Sarutobi noticed who it was that had helped her. Eccentric, silvery hair tilted down, accompanied by a light, "Hokage-sama."

"Ah! Kakashi-kun! You didn't have to stay behind, you know. You should take a break before your next mission comes up," Sarutobi said, walking towards the duo.

"Actually, Hokage-sama, that's why I stayed. I wish to request another mission."

Befuddled, the village leader stared at the young man. "Kakashi, you have accepted eight consecutive missions back-to-back, even ANBU commanders need a break. Now go home." Anger and frustration briefly flashed through Kakashi's eyes before he bowed once again and attempted to march off. A small hand, hidden by a long black sleeve, grabbed onto his pants. Naruto's small hand. Kakashi glanced down, confused at the gesture, and stopped to face her.

"Actually," pondered Sarutobi, looking on with wonder at the two, "Kakashi. Come to my office in fifteen minutes. I have the perfect mission for you."

"Thank you, Hokage-sama," mumbled the teen, still looking at the child.

"I'll see you there in two minutes, Commander. Do not be late." The old man walked off down the hallway to his office, leaving the teen and child alone.

There was silence as slate eye stared into cerulean two. Neither moved, as if the were statues, forever locked into place, Naruto still grasping his pants. Nobody passed by, and Kakashi began to fidget under the girl's gaze. Her eyes never left his, yet her face was going through several changes, contorting into odd positions as if in deep thought. It was, needless to say, unnerving to him. She was so determined not to look away and say something, but she had no idea how. Besides, at this rate he was going to be late to his meeting with the Hokage again.

"Thank you, shinobi-san…" she mutters shyly, finally twisting her gaze to the floor.

After a thoughtful pause where he debated with himself, Kakashi awkwardly plants his hand on the girl's head, a nervous attempt at the action his sensei used to do when he was feeling down. "Umm…you're welcome," Kakashi almost asked.

"You," Naruto paused, shaking slightly and looking at him through short lashes, "lied for me, right, shinobi-san? You didn't actually k-kill… kill that guy, right?"

Kakashi was surprised, his sole eye widening by just a fraction before he answered, "And what if I did?" He didn't quite realize his mistake until tears started pouring out of the girl's eyes.

"Killing people is wrong, Shinobi-san! They're civilians; it's your job to protect them!" Eyes widening, Naruto's cheeks tinged bright red at her outburst. Quickly, she broke off eye contact and stared straight down.

Kakashi blinked owlishly at her. Hatsuki attacked her, attempted to kill her, and she was yelling at him for killing the man? This child was too naïve. "I think you forget, you're a civilian, too."

"You're right, Shinobi-san. Sorry, Shinobi-san. Thank you for saving me, Shinobi-san." Naruto scampered hastily away.

A stunned Kakashi watched her run away before realizing four minutes had passed between their awkward meeting. "Shit!" He sprinted in the direction of his leader's office, hoping that he wouldn't get berated again.

"Hokage-sama, please accept my apologies but-" He yelled as he burst into the leader's office. The leader's deadpan stare stopped him mid-sentence.

"Ahh, Kakashi-kun. I was expecting more along the lines of a small blonde child sprinting through those doors than an ANBU Captain, late for another meeting."

"Pardon my impudence, Hokage-sama, but I was held up."

"Oh, don't worry about it, Kakashi-kun. What did you think of her?"

Kakashi took his time to take in a deep breath before stating, "She's stupid. She scolded me for killing her attacker."

"Now, is that truly stupid, Kakashi-kun? Or is she just innocent?" the Hokage asked sadly. _If only that was the way the world worked, Naruto-chan._

Kakashi scowled at his leader before intervening, "What's my mission, Hokage-sama?"

"Oh! It's an easy baby-sitting assignment. You'll be in charge of watching a young girl whose life has been threatened chronically unless you're otherwise needed." The silver-haired man's eyes widen to immense proportions, openly gawking at the Hokage's implication. Sarutobi chuckled humorously at the genius's awestruck gaze, glad to finally have been able to break his mask after all these years. Kakashi was simply speechless.

His leader couldn't really be insinuating what he thought he was insinuating, could he?

The old monkey stares into the wolf's eyes, silence zipping in between them.

**Soooooo... I hope no one is OOC? I tried making this Kakashi the pre-porno/late Kakashi though well on his way there xD There will probably be 2 or 3 more chapters on Naruto and Kakashi before she goes to the academy and such...**

**At the beginning of the chapter there wasn't much detail compared to speech... but I wanted it that way to seem more like a meeting? Idk if I was successful... lol**

**Please review or even just read! Though perferably review so you can tell me what you think :)**


	4. The Defective Child

**Hello "Y'all"! :) I'm back, and I'm very proud to say that I did update within the week ;) Once again, a hard chapter to me... I want to put more Naruto in but I'm naturally bad with children and writing them isn't something I'm comforatable with :( Buttttt I hope that the interactions are ok, and that both are portrayed well? Maybe? xD**

**This is the last chapter before the academy (I cut it down ALOT since there was originally two more Naru-Kaka family bonding, but I think if I wrote them I'd simply screw them up...), so enjoy young, tiny, socially awkward, six year old Naruto in this xD**

***don't own Naruto***

A face-off. Blue delving into dark grey, small and petite frame against tall and lanky stature. The stillness of two gargoyles, each charged with protecting their posts. Kakashi was at a loss to do. Weren't kids supposed to be loud, raucous? Didn't they sprint around breaking your furniture and causing messes? Didn't they ask stupid questions? His kid must be defective, then, not that he particularly minded. All she did was sit, cross-legged, on his rug and stare at him. In silence. Unwavering.

"…Want anything to eat?"

"Do you have ramen?"

"I think so."

"Can I have ramen?"

"Sure."

Kakashi swiftly left his apartment's living room to head to the kitchen, thankful to be away from the transfixed girl. Hell, he heard Uzumaki Naruto was the worst of worst kids, always pulling pranks and screaming in people's ears! Did he get her sick already, Kakashi pondered worriedly as he went through the motions of pouring water and ramen into a bowl before microwaving it. The teen was extremely thankful for those three minutes of respite from her gaze as the instant ramen was heated. He dreaded the moment the food was finished. Wait; was ramen even healthy for a six year old?

_Beep! Beep! Beeeeeeep!_

Oh, Kami-sama. He was so screwed with this babysitting thing.

Slipping back into the room where the living statue stared at his apartment, he wordlessly placed the hot bowl in front of Naruto then stood uncomfortably in front of her as she ate.

More awkward seconds ticked by with the only movement the slow blinking of eyelids, and Kakashi was getting unnerved. He was already anxious about taking care of a girl, and now she was a defunct one, too. It was making him very nervous. Maybe he should send her back to the Hokage.

"Do you have fish lips under that mask or…?"

Kakashi blinked, surprised at the sound of her voice. Naruto had demolished her food, chopsticks and bowl placed clumsily to the side. Ok, she asked stupid questions. Maybe she was normal?

"It's a family tradition. There's nothing wrong with my face," he replied, matter-of-factly. Her face scrunched up again, deep in thought. She scratched the back of her neck.

"Well, if you say so, Shinobi-san," she said with a shrug. He could have sworn she mumbled "trouty mouth" under her breath.

"Kakashi." Naruto looked up, afraid that she was going to be admonished. "My name. It's Kakashi, not 'Shinobi-san.'"

"Ka…kashi?" Naruto smiled brightly, childish cheer lighting up her face rosily. She giggled, something Kakashi hadn't expected to hear. He found it soothing, really. "Kakashi," she confirmed. He couldn't understand her joy in knowing such a fundamental fact.

"You really do look like a Scarecrow!" her bubbling voiced blasted out, accompanied by laughter. Naruto's eyes were closed with mirth, oddly reminiscent of a wild fox, and her cheeks puffed out and wet with happy tears. Her chubby hands cradled her bellowing stomach heartily and she attempted to suck in air so she wouldn't choke on her amusement. The kid quickly realized that the joke was lost on the older man. Chortling hastily morphs into insignificant sniggers before finally calming down into an obedient silence at the deadpan look she received.

And then the agonizing silence returned. At least now the child entertained herself with scrutinizing his threadbare apartment again—instead of with his name. Kakashi didn't have much, just basic necessities, but Naruto seemed enthralled with it all, almost as if it were all new to her. However, looking at the blonde again, he figured that may very well be true.

Her long, dark blue shirt was threadbare, almost tearing at the elbows and cuffs. Her pants even looked like they weren't pants at all, but shorts made for someone three times her size. And was she barefoot? Suddenly his pocket felt extremely heavy with coins. The silver-haired teen carefully weighed his options: take a nap and ignore the blonde bundle or actually go and do what he was supposed to do. He sighed, pushing himself off the old couch he was seated on.

"Let's go, kid. I have errands to run," Kakashi stated, pulling his flak jacket on and walking straight out the door.

"Naruto! My name is Uzumaki Naruto, not kid! And you better believe it!" a squeaky voice called out after him before he could hear the scrabbling of bare feet. "Hey! Wait up!" He would have smiled if he didn't know what those bare feet meant.

"You don't look like a fishcake to me, Chibi. Just hurry up," Kakashi taunted, walking too fast for his charge to hustle to his heels. He could only hope she wouldn't trip down the stairs in her haste.

"Your stupid legs are too long, 'Kashi! It's not fair unless you slow down, meanie!" Kakashi almost tripped when that nickname escaped her lips, reminding him of his own short and mutilated childhood.

"Maybe your stupid legs are too short, Chibi," he stubbornly answered, not allowing a falter in his gait. They were out of the bland apartment building and now he was striding down the street with the fuming child chasing after him.

"It's Naruto! And my legs are smart, thank you!" Kakashi just knew he saw a rock fly by his cheek. What a temper.

He finally stopped and turn towards the sprinting child, allowing her to catch up. "If you're going to throw something at me, it better hit, Chibi."

Naruto's thin lips were finely formed into a pout as she trudged towards her guardian. "It'll hit next time, 'Kashi. Believe it," she mumbled under her breath. Without a second glance, she passed right by him, her oversized shirt bushing against Kakashi's jacket. A tiny pebble was launched at her back, hitting Naruto right in between her shoulder blades. She threw a childlike glare at the man innocently following her. "Where are we going anyway, 'Kashi?"

"You'll see." Naruto frowned at that, life had taught her the hard way that the unknown was something to be feared.

For the rest of their walk through the shinobi residential district, Naruto spent her time throwing all the pebbles she could get her hands on at the silver-haired nineteen year old. She never hit her mark.

However, while the residential area that Kakashi stayed in didn't bother much with the sight of the duo—almost all were ninja at least of jounin rank and already had their laughs the first time they saw Kakashi take the girl home—when the two reached the marketplace it was a different story. The confident and boisterous demeanor Kakashi observed in Naruto quickly retreated as more people filled the streets. Her head faced the ground and her steps became sluggish, slowing down just enough to find herself hidden behind Kakashi's legs. It was uncomfortable to him, having the small child clinging to his pants, almost pulling them down with her grip—he much preferred her angry attempts on his health via debris. His face reddened at the picture he knew he was exuding to the public.

But the rosy red of embarrassment soon morphed into the flaring red of anger. The villagers around him weren't looking on at them with laughing faces, taking mirth in the awkward predicament a shinobi like him was stuck in, but rather shooting daggers at them with their eyes. Or more specifically, they were glaring at the little girl cowering behind him.

Kakashi turned his head to the kid behind him who was cowering from the people of her own village. They were pitiful.

His hand moving to cup the back of her neck, Kakashi brought Naruto to his side and began to walk again, urging her along gently. While Naruto squeaked in disgruntled protest on being pushed by her handler, Kakashi marched proudly down the street with his head held high side-by-side with the kid, glowering at anyone who dared look at them the wrong way. He ignored the slight tingling shivering up his arm at the unfamiliar contact.

"Keep your head up. Don't ever show weakness," Kakashi murmured to her. Naruto looked up at his masked face, eyes widening, before nodding in understanding. She raised her chin unbearably high and tromped next to her watcher, breaking free from his grasp and moving forward with her own power.

They continued like this for a while, walking through whispering streets, until Naruto whined in frustration, "'Kashi! This only hurts my neck!" She even pouted for emphasis. Kakashi supposed such a young and wild child would have little discipline as to complain in the middle of hostile territory.

"I didn't tell you to stare at the sky, Chibi. That was your own doing."

"Yeah, well you're stupid."

Kakashi could only sigh at her juvenile response. "That's no way to treat the guy who's buying you new clothes, now, is it?"

Instead of the squeals of "Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god thank you Kakashi-sama!" that he expected like most others of the female population, Kakashi received another perplexing introversion on the child's part. The store they stopped in front of was owned by an honest merchant who always sold his best wares to Kakashi with a smile, yet Naruto seemed to shrink away from the brightly colored shop.

"Chibi, this is the shop we're going into," Kakashi grunted when he noticed his charge was no longer following him.

Naruto shook her head violently, hair whipping her cheeks. With her rapid movements, her large shirt began to slip off her shoulder before she quickly fixed it.

"You need new clothes."

"I do not."

Kakashi looked at her sternly. "Naruto, you have to get something that fits you."

With a hateful glare, or at least as hateful as a cherubic six year old face could get, Naruto clamped onto Kakashi's hand and waited for him to guide her.

And now, the teen was absolutely uncomfortable, but the grip Naruto had on his clammy digits was a vice. He could only assume the prickle jolting up his arm was from her tiny, claw-like finger nails digging into his hand. Stupid Hokages assigning stupid missions.

He languidly entered the shop, dragging the stiff girl behind him. The tiny bell chimed, announcing their presence to the shopkeeper and a muffled voice called from the back, "I'll be right with you!" Kakashi shrugged and continued to pull Naruto along with him. She was generally complacent, if one could discount the sporadic jumps at miniscule stimuli and slight whimpers when he made her do something she was particularly stubborn not to do. Such was the case when trying to convince the blonde brat to pick out some clothes she liked.

"Chibi. Pick a shirt and I'll buy it. Honestly, you don't even have to like it, just make sure it fits you!"

Naruto despairingly looked from the hangers of colorful training outfits to the stern ninja beside her, attempting to decide the worst fate of the two. Apparently, she decided the wrath of Kakashi was something to be feared when she shuffled along the aisles of hung up clothes.

When Naruto's tiny hand reached for the brightest apparel in the entire store, a blinding orange sweat suit, the ANBU captain had enough. Going toward the line of clothes labeled with a bolded 's,' for the jinchuuriki was without a doubt a small, Kakashi grabbed a handful of random shirts and pants with his free arm, estimating the need for maybe eight or nine sets. By the time he walked towards the still empty checkout counter, the hand the child was gasping was uncomfortably hot with the feeling spreading up the limb.

Before the ANBU could inspect the cause of the odd feeling, the shopkeeper strode out from the back, clapping his hands merrily from a job well done.

"Ahhh! Hatake-sama! Welcome back!" said the man. He had regular brown eyes sunken deep into his skull and thick black hair, fizzling out to a grey. His thin lips were trained into a smile that didn't completely reach his mannerisms or eyes. Kakashi didn't particularly like him, but Kakashi didn't particularly like many people in the first place.

"I don't think these clothes will fit you, Hatake-sama," he tried with humor. Slowly, the man picked apart each piece of clothing, lackadaisically folding them and ordering them by color.

"They aren't for me," Kakashi replied dryly. This man was taking his sweet, sweet time with his purchase and he could've sworn he was allergic to Naruto. His hand, tightly clamped to hers, was sporting a horrendous itch along with a scorching heat. And he was getting extremely annoyed.

"Oho! So you've finally decided to take an apprentice then?" He motioned towards the assortment of training gear Kakashi had also picked up: a pair of shinobi sandals, cheap practice kunai and shuriken, a kunai pouch, tape, and gloves. Kakashi glared.

"None of your business," Kakashi murmured icily. The child attached to his hip silently shimmied in closer to him, twisting her hand nervously in his. The man, now intrigued, hurried with the purchase, swiftly telling the amount owed and exchanging merchandise for coin. Kakashi grabbed the bag and made to leave the building. He needed to check and see whether or not Naruto was the reason for his painful arm sensations.

"Nonsense! Let me see the lucky chil-" The shopkeeper's words froze in his mouth. When he looked over the counter to the child the ANBU captain was hauling around with him, he came face to face with the pariah of the village, Uzumaki Naruto. And when he comprehended this fact, his face turned blazing red. Kakashi just knew the sudden silence wasn't going to do anything good for the pounding headache that appeared in his mind.

"Hatake, get back here! You swindled me you bastard! That demon isn't allowed to-"

"Say that again."

Naruto was now cowering completely behind Kakashi's legs, shaking from head to toe. Kakashi's ferocious growl didn't help her mindset in the least.

Kakashi knew that he was an elite jounin, an ANBU commander, a master of his emotions, however the civilian had passed the line. This nosy, ignorant citizen who dared raise his voice at him. All he wanted to do was give a poor child fitting clothes and get home to inspect this pain in his arm, which had consistently roared into the blistering heat that now crippled it.

"I dare you," Kakashi snarled, letting go of Naruto's hand to storm up to the counter. The shopkeeper was now the one cowering like a trapped lamb being hunted by a wolf. "Do it, say it again."

He didn't know why, but he took a sadistic pleasure in seeing the man in front of him look on in terror. Maybe the ANBU missions were getting to him? Naruto's moonlike eyes stared after her guardian in his wrathful tirade, standing in a pile of forgotten apparel.

"I-I'm sorry, Hatake-sama! It'll never happen again, I swear!"

But Kakashi exercised his right of selective hearing. He wanted to tear this man apart. he wanted him on the floor, lifeless. Kakashi reached the counter and slammed both hands on the hardwood. Oh, he wanted this man-

"'Kashi! You're bleeding!"

Blinking in surprise, Kakashi turned his gaze down to his aching hand to find the skin raw and torn, blistering as if burnt. More clearheaded now, Kakashi realized that the throb in his arm wasn't just a pain, but more of throb of absolute agony. He hissed in pain, clutching his arm, before twirling on his feet, ordering Naruto to pick up the bags, and marching out of the shop. Something was definitely wrong. If not with him, then with Naruto.

Maybe he should see the Hokage again.

**There we are :) and OH NO! What happened?! Lol, I don't want to give it away (though one of you guys knows what it is) and it's not going to be playing the biggesttttt part in the story quite yet, but yeah :)**

**Please read and review! 3**


	5. The New Team Seven

**Hey! I'm one day earlier than I thought I was and I even got the word count to go above 4,000! :D I want to warn you all, there are a few drastic changes in Naruto as well as other aspects of the Naruto-verse in this chapter and it took me a LONG time to decide on whether or not I should have changed them the way I did or not... so critique would be nice (especially on interactions), please? :) At times this was hard, though at others it was very nice, so I hope you like it!**

*******EDIT: Changed the teams around better! Just saying :)**

***Don't Own Naruto***

"Shiiiiiiiiiiit! I am SO late!" Naruto shouted, bolting through trees at a lightning fast rate. She couldn't be late, she refused to be late. Especially today.

Small, floating leaves zoomed by her tanned cheeks, whipping her face to the point of stinging. But she didn't pay much attention to these tiny occurrences, instead she was solely focused on the barely visible sun, partially hidden by branches and leaves of the multitude of trees. It was raised approximately thirty-eight degrees, meaning it was almost eight thirty in the morning, meaning that she was well on her way to being late if she didn't hurry, meaning-

"Oomph!" Searing pain spread through her nose and tailbone. It was just her luck to run full force into a tree she failed to notice right when she needed it least. "Kami-sama! Why do you hate me?" Uzumaki Naruto wailed into the air, lying flat on her butt. She bit her lip for a moment against the pain jolting through her body before her eyes flashed with determination. She could get to school in ten minutes, believe it!

She crouched low, inhaled, exhaled, then…go!

Keeping her center of gravity low, Naruto dashed through the trees in a zigzagging pattern faster than before, her long blonde hair flailing behind her wildly, a feral grin on her face. She was a rusty and yellow blur, zipping through the forest. While her running appeared to follow no path, Naruto knew these woods better than anyone. Just about every day, in the morning before school and the afternoon directly after, Naruto would head to her secluded training spot: Training Ground fifty-eight, a small patch of meadow just five minutes behind the Hatake apartment. However, these five minutes from her house were another five minutes that made up the twenty-five minutes it took to walk to the Academy. She only had ten minutes before she was late. Still, she was fast.

It was only eight minutes of roundabout sprinting with the wind palming her face before she met the Academy face-to-face with a smile. The trees opened up to a tall brick building with swarms of children buzzing around it.

"Cool, new record." Her two hands reached underneath unruly, shoulder length hair for the back of her neck, landing familiarly on the cool fabric of her vest, dyed a dark and rust orange. It was a thick turtleneck with no sleeves and vertical stitching running down it. Underneath the tight vest (hugging her nonexistent curves) lay an iron fishnet shirt that opened wide on the shoulders and went all the way to the wrists.

Tight black shorts embraced her thighs until right above her knees. The only adornments on her lower half was a black belt holding several small scrolls on her left side and the kunai pouch on her right thigh. Simple, black, and thin shinobi sandals rested on her feet strapped on tightly with tiny strings that held three ball-less bells on the ends. She tenderly brushes dead grass off them. A memento from Kashi-nii.

A foxy smile materialized on her face as Naruto sauntered up to the entrance, weaving between several kids her age and younger. Unfortunately, most of them were taller than her…as always. Her smile faltered into a scowl at that thought, but she brushed it off. Today was the day!

Foolhardily marching through the halls, Naruto walked straight over the threshold of her life for the past five years: her academy classroom. And she had half a minute to spare, even!

"Naru, you're amazingly late for someone who raves about the importance of timeliness."

"Well excuse me, Dogbreath," Naruto huffed in frustration, taking her usual seat besides the Inuzuka, "but I do believe that I was just on time." She elbowed him in the arm for good measure, a smirk on her face. Kiba playfully took the jaunt and smiled back at his friend.

"Hey Naru-san," the Akamichi, easily identified by his rotund body, called out from behind her. Naru turned to look at him carefully, torso twisting in her seat. She wasn't well-versed in talking to Choji, usually conversing only with Kiba (and then that was only at school). While his best friend Nara Shikamaru was irrevocably and shamelessly lazy, a trait in a person that drove her slightly insane, she deemed Choji as a well-tempered and kind boy, and he was fine in her book.

She flashed him a blinding smile. "Yo Choji, what's up?"

With a small smile of his own, Choji replied, "Who do you think is gonna be on the same team? I'd ask Shikamaru but he's…" a small glance to the side was all it took to draw Naruto's attention to the sleeping form next the Akimichi, "you know."

With a sigh directed towards the Nara boy, Naruto scanned the classroom. Everyone currently in the room had passed the genin test the morning before and gotten their hitai-ate as well. Most of the children, those in her direct vicinity included, were clan children. Not only that, but they were all the heirs to many of the most important clans in Konoha history.

There was Inuzuka Kiba, a hotheaded yet determined boy with the classic Inuzuka attire and fang markings underneath his eyes. He had messy brown hair that was perpetually messed up by the small white puppy he carried around with him, the Inuzuka clan legacy. His greatest downfall was his cockiness as well as his loudness, two traits they both shared.

In the row next to him sat Hyuuga Hinata and Aburame Shino, both quiet individuals who never made much talk. The former was insecure, nervous, and kind to a fault, something that only impeded her skills. Shino, the latter, was simply an… interesting kid in her eyes, obsessed with bugs and keeping his face hidden, anything he did eventually say was followed by a long list of reasons that continuously perplexed her.

One row ahead on Naruto's left were the three-seated rows, where two girls were cat-fighting for a particular seat. One of them, Yamanaka Ino, was a childhood acquaintance of hers during the times she had to talk to her father. However, unlike how she was back then, Ino was now more focused on obtaining a boy's heart than surviving in the cut-throat life of shinobi. The same could be said about the pink-haired girl she was fighting with: Haruno Sakura. While possibly the smartest girl in the class, something Naruto envied greatly, she too only used that power of hers to get closer to a boy instead of directing it towards shinobi life.

Lastly, outside of her, Shikamaru, and Choji, the only other clan child was the orphaned Uchiha Sasuke, the brooding prince that the aforementioned fangirls squealed over. He was amazingly skilled, she'd give him that, but he was just so depressing and boring. And arrogant.

"Honestly, Choji?"

The chubby boy eagerly nodded his head, nervousness filling his eyes. Naruto wondered, was he really that worried about who would be on his team?

"I have no idea! I'm not a genius like Shikamaru or Sakura. Sorry, buddy." Naruto never noticed the slightly crestfallen look on the Akimichi's face at the answer.

Skillfully ignoring the growing shrieks over who would sit next to Sasuke by the window, Naruto began fantasizing of her life as a ninja, of the days where she'd be the strongest kunoichi alive. Protecting royals via the shadows, catching that arrow spinning towards a princess's chest, making sure no other child was left bereft of parents. All of it, she would accomplish all of it.

A smile infected her face, a big toothy smile. All her hard work throughout the past five years would come to a climax as she reached her ninja-dom. Naruto giggled to herself as well, fantasies hastily spinning out of control. Maybe she'd face off against an elite ninja and come out on top; they'd have to make her Hokage right then and there! Or, better yet, she might go and fight against a kage of another nation, beat him unconscious, and earn the title of kage there as well as Konoha! These ideas made her do a little jig in her mind, grinning like a mad idiot.

"SIT DOWN!" Iruka's big-head justu made its appearance, killing the catfight going on by "Sasuke's row." Everyone in the room, except perhaps Shikamaru and Sasuke, snapped to attention. Naruto bolted ramrod straight and smiled nervously at her sensei, knowing how many times she'd been on the receiving end of that justu. She may find tardiness disgusting, however skipping out on class to do better things—pranks, training, ramen—was something she was fond of.

Iruka strode to the center of the room, glancing at each of his children with pride. "Starting today, all of you are real shinobi, but you are still genin. The hard journey that lies ahead has just started," began Iruka, meeting the eyes of each ninja in the room, clan or clanless, "Now you will soon get missions to help the village."

Naruto sucked in her breath, eyes wide with wonder. This was really it! Her first big step to her dreams. From the corner of her eye, she locked gazes with Kiba. He smirked at her, full of confidence, and it was a smirk she returned. Akamaru yipped with assurance as well. She was so going to wreck the shinobi nations.

Iruka allowed the hushed whispers to die down before returning to his speech. "So today we will create the three man teams and each team will have a jounin-sensei. You will follow your sensei's instructions in order to successfully complete these missions. We aligned you based on balancing strength. Alright, team one…"

Naruto's fingers tapped aimlessly on the table in front of her.

"Team four: Tasai Akihiko, Komura Mamoru, Shin Takumi."

Not her name, doesn't matter.

"Team six: Honsu Nao, Michi Ko, Izanagi Jun."

Still no Uzumaki on the list. Naruto looked again at her seatmate to see him completely fixated on the sounds coming out of Iruka's mouth. She looked at the row in front of her to the left, Ino and Sakura were elbowing each other in the ribs, expectant looks on their faces. All of the clan kids still remained.

"Team seven: Naruto Uzumaki"—Naruto's face lit up with recognition and anticipation. That was her name! Who else would be on her team, she wondered gleefully—"Sasuke Uchiha, and Nara Shikamaru. Team Seven's jounin-sensei will be-"

"WHAT?!" Naruto exploded, launching angrily from her seat. The chair she was sitting on previously toppled behind her, clattering to the ground. Iruka seemed unsurprised at her outburst. "Iruka-sensei! Why am I grouped with the laziest person in the world and the biggest asshole ever?!"

Iruka let out a long, calming breath of air. "Naruto." The girl in questioned flinched. He was using her full name. "We base these teams off balance. Sasuke is the number one in the class, you're the top kunoichi, and Shikamaru is last. If you have an issue, take it up with the Hokage, or your team leader."

"Fine sensei, I will," the blonde huffed, hair waving behind her. She plopped down on the floor, settling cross-legged underneath the desk, childishly refusing to pick up her chair. She could hear Kiba snickering next to her.

"Never knew you were so against me, Naruto." The words spoken, coming out more like a yawn than anything, had Naruto roll onto her back and lay on the floor to see. Leaning over the edge of his desk to look at her was none other than Nara Shikamaru, whose uninterested eyes stared down at her. Another snicker from Kiba.

"Well, I don't have a problem with you, per se…" Naruto began thoughtfully, "I just have a problem with, you know, 'you.'" Comfortably fitting her hands underneath her neck, Naruto smiled at her logic.

The pineapple-head's eyebrow rose considerably.

"Who's our sensei?" Sasuke asked from behind the crying girls next to him.

Naruto's face turned white at the answer. "Hatake Kakashi."

Oh. Shit.

"Something wrong, Naru?"

"No, Iruka-sensei," squeaked the girl, still hidden from view underneath her table. Iruka had a suspicion that she'd be down there for a while.

"Good. Team eight: Inuzuka Kiba, Yamanaka Ino, Hyuuga Hinata. Jounin-sensei is Yuuhi Kurenai. Team Nine still in duty. Team Ten: Akimichi Choji, Haruno Sakura, Aburame Shino. Jounin-sensei is Sarutobi Asuma. Team eleven…"

Naruto blocked them all out. She ignored Kiba's growl of pride, Choji's goodbye to Shikamaru, Ino and Sakuras' wails of sadness. Her sensei was Kashi-nii. It couldn't be, right? He wasn't even home yet. He hadn't told her he'd be taking more genin hopefuls. He hasn't even seen her for almost a month now.

She couldn't tell whether or not she should be grinning like a Cheshire cat or wailing like a baby bird.

That would mean that's he's back for good. Her Kashi-nii was going to be back home again! She couldn't wait to see him and tell him about her years in the academy, sitting through all those boring lessons. She could show him off to her classmates as her brother…

No. That couldn't happen. If they found out her sensei was her brother, wouldn't they think he was showing favoritism? Or maybe the other students would start thinking her hard-earned skills were all thanks to Kakashi's teaching instead of through her sheer willpower. Perhaps they'd ask how Kakashi and she met and then why he became her guardian and that conversation was strictly off limits. If they found that outm they'd get curious and there were just some things she didn't want to reveal or relive.

No, he'd only be Kakashi-sensei to her for now. Besides, she should be mad. He hadn't visited in over two months. Naruto subconsciously pouted.

"Naru. Oi, Naru! Our sensei are coming to meet us, so wake up will ya?"

"Shush, Dogbreath. I wasn't sleeping in the first place!" Naruto pouted, sitting upright. "Besides," she added in a whisper, "I might as well sleep if he's our sensei…"

From underneath the table, she could see two very feminine legs saunter into the room. Kiba was all of a sudden very silent, sucking his breath in. Naruto sniggered.

"Team eight, follow me!" she called out enthusiastically. Her voice was a rich velvet. Howling with glee, Akamaru rushed the door with a close second being Kiba, obviously excited with how his sensei looked. This reaction was followed by a depressed sigh from Sakura and quiet shuffling of Shino's feet as they, too, left the room with their new commanding officer. She could also hear the whispers from other boys in the class commenting on how "hot" this Kurenai person was. Well, at least Kiba would have motivation to train harder.

Soon, more jounin-sensei arrived to pick up their teams. Team ten's leader came almost twenty minutes after the first arrival of Kurenai-sensei. Naruto, now situated correctly in her seat, scrutinized the Sarutobi clansman closely. While he didn't obviously resemble his father, they did have the same nose and facial shape. Also, Asuma-sensei's hair seemed almost as if it were a replica of a younger Oji-san. Still, a huge difference was that Asuma-sensei's posture seemed a lot less strained and formal. He was still relaxed, unlike the Sandaime.

Hinata and Choji quietly followed a loud Ino out after him as well, leaving Naruto, Sasuke, and Shikamaru in the classroom alone. Naruto just knew this was going to be a long afternoon.

At first, the room was silent. Not even Shikamaru let out a snoring breath that broke it. But Naruto could only sit still for so long, especially when waiting for family. It began with a light tapping of the foot in a happy rhythm, a quick staccato of beats. However, soon that became boring, and Naruto switched over to humming random tunes she collected over the years. Yet, after almost an hour of mindless music and a scalding hole in the side of her head from Sasuke's glare, that too became something of the past. She attempted to appease her aching muscles by pacing around the room in wide circles before she once again got irritated with the repetitive movements.

Naruto had almost forgotten how she had gotten her abhorrence of tardiness. Waiting for him every day without fail sure pissed her off. In fact, it pissed her off now. There was only one peaceful way to vent her frustration. With a deep breath, "AHHHH!"

"Shit!" a hiss came from behind her with a tumble. Glancing back towards the desks behind her, Naruto took gleeful notice of a certain lazy ass making contact with linoleum floors. "Naruto! Next time you decide to howl like a banshee, warn me will you? Troublesome woman…"

"Troublesome? I'll show you troublesome, Pineapple Head!" she growled, marching over to his fallen body. He blinked lethargically up at her from his mangled position on the floor. It only made the girl madder that his eyes contained no defiance. He was even too lazy to pick himself up!

"Dumbass, Dobe, how about you both shut up and stop wasting air?" Naruto flipped on Sasuke now, snarling. Why were both her teammates the kind of people who pissed her off the most?

"Why do you have a huge stick up your ass?" she retorted. Sasuke didn't verbally answer her, but Naruto knew he was seething with insults. The atmosphere in the room dropped to an even more caustic air, which was saying something. Silence once again usurped the room.

One hour, fourty-three minutes.

One hour, fifty-eight minutes.

Two hours, eighteen minutes.

Two hours, fifty-six minutes, thirty-nine seconds. Shikamaru had slothed himself back into the upright position of his chair to sleep, Sasuke had returned to solitary brooding and attempting to burn holes through objects with his mind, and Naruto had resigned herself to sitting on Iruka's desk.

Maybe he wasn't coming? Chances are, he just returned from a mission, so perhaps he skipped out on the hospital visit and was now getting reamed for his evasion. But the orange clad child knew better. He was just being himself. His infuriatingly, late self. She scratched the back of her neck impatiently.

"Yo."

"You're late," Naruto deadpanned quickly like a reflex, her voice laced with double meaning. She didn't even look towards the door.

"Mah, let's not get hung up on specifics now chibis. That's saved for talks at home," Kakashi replied, rubbing the back of his neck.

His eyes briefly flickered to glance at her form before returning to his orange book. He took a mental note of Naruto's tensing of her muscles. She was, of course, still hanging onto to the horrendous color orange by the thinnest thread (at least it wasn't blaring like it used to be). Kakashi was a little unnerved by the provocative clothing choice, though.

"You should cover that stomach up, Kiddie, or you might catch a cold," he commented on a side note.

"I never get colds."

"Only idiots never get colds."

Naruto finally looked at him, or glared more precisely, and he had the gall to smile innocently at her. He, who left for months at time and always came back injured and silent, had the balls to brush her anger off like a miniscule fly. He hadn't changed one bit.

"Well that explains it," the last Uchiha sneered with an ugly expression towards Naruto. Kakashi's eyebrows rose at the obvious disdain shown. Eyes once again meeting between the blonde haired girl and the silver haired man, Naruto sheepishly rubbed the back of her neck.

"Ok… Where's the other one, then?" Kakashi questioned offhandedly. His answer was a finger pointing to the back of the room, causing the jounin-sensei to find his missing genin sleeping away without a care in the world. Slowly, Kakashi relocated his precious book to his kunai pouch before addressing his team, "My first impression of you guys: can't quite say I like you all. Meet me on the top of the roof in ten." He glanced at each of them and then simply walked out of the room, leaving team seven alone.

Naruto allowed a wry smile to grace her face. He really hadn't changed since the last she saw him. Still the same old Kashi-nii.

"What a useless sensei… can't even sense a sleeping genin in the same room…" the brooding Uchiha wallowed. He stoically stood from his seat and strode to the open door. "You guys better not be late."

The blonde shouted at his back, "As if Sasuke! Kashi-nii is the best!" However, the boy was already gone and deaf to her voice. Running a hand through he soft locks of hair, Naruto began to imagine how wonderful the time with her team was going to be. That sure put a damper on her visions of grandiose missions and success.

"Shikamaru! Wake up, we've got to go, lazy bum." When she saw him stirring, Naruto walked out of the room and headed up the stairs towards the roof, prepared for a long team meeting.

_B_R_E_A_K_

"Just on time, Chibi. Where's the sleeping one?"

"He should be right about-"

"Troublesome."

"-here."

"Good!" Kakashi exclaimed while clapping his hands. He was currently sitting on the raised edge of the building. The landscape behind him depicted of an open clearing that contained several trees with targets as well as a lone tree with a swing before receding into Konoha's acclaimed forest. Naruto had fond memories of those places, especially when it accompanied the memories of playing hookie. One time, she skipped a lecture on the Hokage's to welcome Kashi-nii back from a mission only to find later in the day that he had sprinted straight to school in order to pick her up. She momentarily looked at the man in front of her: her brother. A foxy smile lifted her lips.

They, the genin, were sitting on the floor in front of him with varying degrees of attention. Shikamaru was already almost dozing again, Sasuke was staring angrily at his sensei with intensity, and Naruto was realizing finally that the person in front of her was truly her nii-chan. Naruto suddenly found it hard to not run up to the slouching man in front of her for a hug.

"Alright. Why don't we start with introductions?" He motioned towards Naruto with a smirk.

"Uzumaki Naru. I like training, plants, oranges, ramen, and Nii-chan. I dislike laziness, tardiness, people who can't take jokes, and narrow-minded people," Naruto began with the largest smile she could muster. "My dream is to be Hokage, believe it!"

Kakashi eye-smiled at his sister-turned-student. "Very good. And you?"

_"My name is Sasuke Uchiha." When the boy paused, Kakashi waved him on. "I hate a lot of things…and I don't particularly like anything," he continued. "What I have is not a dream because I will make it a reality. I'm going to restore my clan and kill a certain someone." There was silence. A shiver ran up Naruto's spine with the resolve inscribed in Sasuke's voice. She could only hope that she was the one who had pissed him off that much._

_"…Right. Pineapple, you're next."_

_He was staring at the sky, watching as clouds passed by. Shikamaru didn't answer._

_"I said you're next, genin," Kakashi ordered lightly._

_"…Nara Shikamaru. I like watching clouds. Everything else is too troublesome to mention."_

_Kakashi released a sigh. Naru, a brooder, and a sleeper. He just knew this was going to be an interesting team. _

"I guess that's it for introductions? Ok, tomorrow we'll start our duties as shinobi." Sasuke perked up. "Survival training."

"Sensei, we've already gone through survival training," drawled Shikamaru, still gazing skyward.

"Oh, but this isn't normal survival training, Chibis. This time, I'm your opponent." Naruto could sense the maniacal smile hidden under his mask.

"Really?" came a skeptical question from her mouth, brows furrowed. Sure, she was excited to test her strength against her lifelong role model, but Naruto was so much of a dunce as to believe she had a fighting chance against Kakashi.

"Yepp! And if you don't pass this test," he chirped out, "you're sent back to the academy for remedial lessons!"

Naruto's jaw dropped. "Kashi, no WAY! That's not fair! I stayed in school with my age group and graduated, I'm not going through another year in this hellhole! Kakashi I'ma…" while Naruto's whines intensified, Kakashi simply continued to talk over her with sadistic mirth.

"Either way, come tomorrow with the tools and intent to kill. You can't afford to hold back, kay? Also, don't eat unless you want to puke!" The sweetness dripping from his voice made Naruto shut up just as Kakashi disappeared in a swirl of leaves.

"Damn showoff," she muttered darkly. Hastily she left the roof to head home and hopefully meet up with Kashi-nii on the way. She didn't pay attention to Sasuke's grin at Kakashi's demand of violence nor did she notice the words that Shikamaru let out, curious.

"…Kashi?"

**And there you have it! Te gusta? :) please say you like it :( and pleaseee tell me what you thought of how each character interacted with each other? I tried building a specific wab of relationships without background detail so i'm not sure how good it is or how confusing it might be to you guys...**

**Lastly! Thanks to my buddy iheartanime434 (she's a legend of korra writer, if you like that show, check her out!), foxgirl1998, musicdevil01, and CrimsonLaurana for making me want to write! They were nice enough to answer my PMs ;)**

**Also, a thanks to That Crazy Person, death comes from the mist, S4A4M, and Polak0113 for following my story! :) I used to PM to you all directly but I'm switching over to thanking you here, publicly, so everyone knows I appreciate you!**

**Nowwwww... Please review! :D and enjoy ;)**


	6. First Day on the Job

**Hey! :D I was in a very dedicated mood to this for some reason or another (CoughCough-didnt-want-to-do-homework-coughcough) so you get the chapter especially fast! It's slightly shorter than the other chapters and nothing much happens in it, but it DOES introduce the genin test Kakashi gives them ;) It also hopefully gives a little more insight into how team dynamics will be going with this team (I haven't read any fics where Shikamaru is paired up with both Naruto and Sasuke, though that might just be because I'm looking in the wrong area!).**

***Don't own Naruto***

She stared hard at the apple, the cogs in her brain churning lethargically. Kashi-nii told her when she was younger that balanced meals three times a day was rule number one for survival. Ok, maybe number one was "don't die," but healthy eating was a definite second! So, if what Kashi-nii said in the past was the truth, than why was Kakashi-sensei telling her now to refrain from breakfast? It just made her brain hurt.

Not only that, but she also skipped out on dinner the night before. Why you might ask? Well, maybe it was because she expected that, since he was finally back in Konoha, her brother would actually come home in time for a welcoming dinner. He _had_ left the rooftop before her after all, and he was much faster than she. Instead, she fell asleep at the table to the cold eggplant soup she cooked only to wake up mysteriously in her bed, covered snuggly in her sheets. When returning to the kitchen, the meal and cooking mess was cleaned up with no trace of anyone being there.

A scowl adorned her mouth. She had a half hour before she had to arrive at the training grounds, and therefore she had two hours to decide whether or not her teeth would be tearing into the apple's red flesh. Stupid Kakashi for boggling her mind.

With a reluctant sigh, Naru trudged back to her room. Instead of dwelling on the seemingly simple decision, she instead took initiative in getting ready. Before entering, Naru stole a quick glance at the door directly adjacent to hers: Kakashi's room. _Did he sleep here last night? Did he even sleep at all?_ She worriedly bit her lip. Stupid jounins not taking care of themselves.

It took her twenty full minutes to fish out all her ninja wire and gear from the hurricane called her room and to get dressed in her appropriate ninja attire. Naruto took revering glance at her pristine Hia-ate (which she refused to wear before her first mission) with longing. She turned away from the glorious sight. As she made to leave the room, she glanced at the mirror. What was so wrong with showing her belly button, anyway?

Finally, the thirtieth minute stroke its toll and she strode straight out of her room, into the kitchen and grabbed the deep red apple without a second thought. With a big chomp from her mouth, the door to the apartment slammed shut behind her as she left towards training ground three.

When jumping off the last step of her apartment complex, Naruto squinted. The air was layered with heat waves swirling in front of her sight and the sun was hanging uncovered in a bright blue expanse of sky. She could only be grateful for the minimal clothing of her shinobi uniform, because the training today wasn't going to be easy.

Taking another large bite of the apple in her hand, Naruto turned right onto another street, her mind obsessed with the riddle of which Kakashi to listen if these discrepancies continued. Her mind busy with this riddle she didn't notice right away that, unlike the shinobi residential area she just left, this one was filled with civilians bustling to and fro, busy with their morning duties. Bodies were being shoved into each other in haste and skin was brushing against skin.

With a distracted step forward, she immediately froze. Naruto could feel the air shift in front of her as a person passed her by. The skin on her face tingled in a burning eagerness, as if the organ itself wanted to come into contact with another person. Gritting her teeth, the genin stiffly began to skulk into the crowd, weaving in between people to the best of her ability. Her skin protested her evasive maneuvers, calling out for a caress of skin on skin. With the occasional touch, a jolt passed into her veins. A jolt that she learnedly shoved back into her body. Maybe she should do as Kakashi said and cover up more.

"Hey! Watch out! Move it! Excu-! Wai-!" Naruto's panicked cries grew more terrified as she delved deeper into the crowd. Somehow, though, she was able to dance out of contact with most people. Her muscles were strung as tight as a trip wire as Naruto dived and ducked and dodged people. She hated crowds. She should have gone the long way.

For what seemed like hours to Naruto—_I'm not going to be late, am I?!_—she continued this pattern until reaching the next turn. This new road was barren of people and led over a river and into the woods. Naruto knew this road and destination by memory. Kashi-nii had taken her through here on various occasions in the past. With a flick of the wrist, a crushed apple core flung from her sticky fingers. Naruto scrunched her face in disgust. Naruto brought her apple-juiced hand to her lips. With a big and sloppy swipe of her tongue, she licked her palm in an attempt to clean it before blanching at the taste.

"I'm not late, am I?"

Sasuke looked away from his kunai target long enough to discern Naruto's face before returning to practice. She scoffed at his repetitive movements; he's already mastered throwing kunai and shuriken statically, he should move on to movement throwing.

It took her a few second before she realized he wasn't going to answer her, though she probably should have known that from the start. With a sigh, she instead looked up to the sky and the blazing sun. Fuck. It seemed as if she was, indeed, late.

Naruto dragged herself in font of three wooden posts staked in the middle of the clearing and slid down the middle one in depression. She was late.

"It's only five minutes, you know." So there the Nara was.

"I'm still late, though."

"…Troublesome."

Naruto snorted, a smile twisting her lips. "You eat this morning?"

The telltale sound of shifting grass told the orange-clad girl that the lazy boy was heading towards her position. "My mom wouldn't let me skip."

A raised eyebrow. "Why do I feel like that's a lie, Nara?" Shikamaru finally reached her position and slid down next to her, his pineapple head leaning against the wood. The girl flinched away from the closeness, twisting herself further from her teammate's body but still leaning on the post. He took a curious sideways glance at her and she mimicked the action. As always, Shikamaru was wearing his basic ninja attire: quarter-sleeve fishnet shirt underneath an open grey Nara vest and plain black shinobi pants worn high on the hips. Naruto stared at his Hia-ate on his shoulder as he gave a noncommittal shrug.

The two became silent. The Uchiha continued practicing with his kunai for a while longer before giving up on the distraction and heading into the trees to lie down on the branches further in.

Naruto was running her fingers through her loose hair, debating whether or not to tie it up for the upcoming battle, when a soft hissing noise perched in her ears. A peripheral glance gave her all she needed to deduce that her teammate had fallen asleep next to her. She couldn't blame him; Kashi-nii was later than she first anticipated. The next couple of minutes were surely approaching the two hour mark.

She herself was starting to nod off when a new hissing flew to her ear. However this noise was reminiscent of something more dangerous, lethal. Naruto slid to her stomach and rolled, pushing Shikamaru out of the way as well as using his body for momentum as several shuriken imbedded themselves in the wooden post.

"Oof!" he exasperated, broken from his slumber. "Naru! What are you-!" A kunai cut him off by forcing him to scramble off the ground and move. Sprinting laterally, the boy ran into the shadow of the trees across from Naruto, who was crouching low to the ground on all fours, prepared to move. Her eyes were darting all across the clearing their training ground occupied.

"Kakashi-sensei. You're quite late, ya?" her voice called out, bouncing emptily off the forest flora. Both children were tensed and ready for evasive maneuvers at the first sign of trouble, however no sounds seemed out of place. Only the whistling of the wind.

_Crack!_

Naruto bolted towards the noise, signaling the Nara to follow. The sound had originated in the direction of Sasuke's spot. It was then that Shikamaru realized something: Naruto was fast. _Extremely_ fast. At least for a genin. By the time he began to walk towards the sound, she had already disappeared, sprinting off into the distance. He wasn't even sure that he saw her move in the first place.

Luckily, she wasn't hard to follow: several broken twigs and branches lay in the wake of her sprint. He trailed her path lackadaisically until reaching a meadow in the woods. He sighed in frustration when he noted that Naruto had bolted right into the middle of the clearing, giving up any possible element of surprise and leaving herself open to 360 degrees of attack angles. He chose to crouch down behind a tree instead.

Naruto's head flipped around clueless as if on a swivel, searching for any sign of her Nii-san or the teme. She found neither, but instead heard awkward grunts and growls echoing around her. Put on edge, she once again bent low to the ground.

"Teme…? Kashi?" She whispered into the space. She wasn't sure whether Shikamaru had followed her or not, but she was absolutely positive that this was where Sasuke had fallen from his tree, or more precisely been forced from his tree, causing the crash.

The grunts silenced themselves, disappearing into the wind.

"Teme!"

"Shut up, dumbass. I'm right here," a disembodied voice growled. Naruto jumped in surprise. "It's a genjustu, baka! How the hell did you even graduate?"

With a pout, Naruto positioned her fingers and yelled, "Kai!" He voice bounced off the trees.

"Shhh! He'll hear you, idiot!"

However, the sight that greeted the girl made it impossible for her to obey. A bodiless Sasuke was scowling on the ground, everything but his head encased in dirt.

"Hahahahaha! T-Teme! You look so stupid!" she barked out, holding her stomach in glee. Naruto was practically rolling on the ground in laughter when several shuriken flew towards her. These ones she barely dodged in her distraction.

"Now now, Chibi. Never drop your guard in the midst of an attack," Kakashi chided, materializing from the shadows of the trees. He calmly walked towards Naruto to retrieve his weapons. She sat down obediently in front of him, awaiting her orders like a willing puppy. With one hand placing the shuriken back into his pouch, he offhandedly ruffled her hair affectionately. "Also, never let your enemy get so close, Naru-chan."

"Yeah well, people are supposed to come home for dinner, but we all know how well that works out, neh Kakashi-sensei?" she rebutted childishly. Her cheeks were puffed out and blonde eyebrows furrowed.

Eye-smiling ambiguously, his head turned towards the trees, "Shikamaru! Get out here and help Naru dig up the Uchiha!"

Grumbling, Shikamaru plodded out into the open, lazy eyes openly filling with humor as he looked at Sasuke. Both he and Naruto began to dig their third teammate up despite his protests. Eventually, the black-haired boy escaped from his earthy prison, standing up with as much dignity and stoniness as possible. Naruto snickered behind her hand.

"Alright brats!" Kakashi began, clapping his two gloved hands together, "you've already failed your first test."

"Wait, what?"

"Huh?!"

"My mom's gonna kill me."

"One of the most important rules of being shinobi is to always be aware and ready, yet I arrive and find just about all of you sleeping. Sasuke, I could have easily killed you. You isolated yourself from your team and then left yourself in your most vulnerable state: sleep." Sasuke clenched his fists in response to the criticism. "Shikamaru, you, too, were asleep. Not only that, but you fell asleep in the middle of an open clearing leaving yourself vulnerable. You were lucky Naru was there to have your back." Shikamaru was simply staring up, watching the clouds pass by. "And Naru. While you were conscious enough to dodge and push Shikamaru out of harm's way, had I been trying you would have never sensed me coming. You'd be dead as well." Naruto flinched. "Just because the enemy doesn't arrive at the expected time doesn't mean they won't eventually come."

"Sorry, sensei," Naruto conceded. She was embarrassed. She should have known.

"However, you'll all be getting another chance, though you need to remember that will never happen in real life. Understand?"

Naruto nodded enthusiastically, her blonde hair swaying erratically.

"I said, 'Understand?'"

"Yes sir!" Naruto's voice easily overtook the others', Sasuke reluctantly mumbled while Shikamaru airily answered. Kakashi let it slide at the moment.

With a shake of the head, Kakashi continued, "The second part if this test is more difficult and if you fail it, you're all going back to the academy."

Kakashi took a pause to allow the kids to think. Naru was easy, of course. Fiery eyes and lips set into a think line, her being exuded determination. He had to fight down the smirk on his face. Sasuke, as well, was easy enough to read. He had some sort of fury in him. Kakashi was simply glad that energy was being propelled towards succeeding. Shikamaru was just weird though. In fact, he didn't even seem to be paying attention.

"All right. To pass, you need to escape Training Ground Three before…" Kakashi took a quick glance at the sky. It was already about one in the afternoon. "Nightfall, let's say. That gives you five hours. The first two to escape not only get to pass, but they also get these bento!" The Jounin produced two identical, wrapped bento boxes from thin air, opening then to show their contents. Onigiri, fish, and vegetables tantalized the children who were hungry at varying degrees. Shikamaru was partially immune; he had eaten a full breakfast that morning as a contingency plan. Naruto would watering at the mouth, however she was chronically hungry and had eaten an apple. Sasuke, though, was actually the student to listen to his sensei's words and didn't eat anything in the morning. He was now suffering the consequences.

"I knew we were supposed to eat this morning, you stupid scarecrow," Naruto commented with a holier-than-thou smile. For once, she was the one on top intellectually. "You just wanted to torture us with the prospect of hunger!"

Kakashi beamed with silent pride. "Very good! Sometimes, you need to realize orders are not absolute, Naru-chan!" Sasuke practically exploded at this information, glowering heatedly at his new leader. The dumbass blonde had figured out the riddle, and from the looks of the dobe, he'd known about it, too! How could he, the number one rookie of the year, not have realized it when they had?

Naruto smiled back at Kakashi with a flippant salute.

"Now that you all understand…" Kakashi said, scratching at his masked cheek, "I guess you can begin." With those words and a puff of flowering smoke, the man disappeared, leaving a scroll in his place.

Sasuke, at the first sign of freedom, bolted off into the woods, intent on being out first. He had no time to spare on the scroll. His two worthless teammates had outdone him earlier, but he'd be the best in this aspect. He was too good not to.

Naruto, also, went off into the woods, though her direction was back towards the three posts where they began. Her speed was noticeably faster than the Uchiha's, though clumsier. She, too, ignored the memento left by her sensei, preferring to get a move on out of the training grounds. She would show her Nii-san how much she had improved!

Being the only one left, Shikamaru dragged his feet to the scroll. It was small enough to wrap his entire hand around and had a deep green lining. With a flourish of his wrist, the Nara rolled out the scroll in front of him. On the white surface was a message that made him groan in protest. He looked in both directions: the way Naruto went and the way Sasuke went. This was too troublesome for him.

Plopping down into the grass, Shikamaru decided to play the waiting game until one of the others figured it out, which was, quite rationally, a possible "never."

The scroll rolled out of his open palm and spread out, displaying three black, inky words to the sky.

_Good luck, Team._

**Hope y'all liked it! :) Like I said, nothing much happens in this chapter, but it sets a couple things up and if I tried including the genin test in this chapter it probsssss wouldn't have come out for another week or so. -.- Aka: The next chapter will be my first fight/ninja-y scene EVER! LE GASP! hahaha**

**I hope (once again) that you guys liked it, I take critisism to heart and relatively well sooooo please? lol**

**Also! Thanks to the Favs/Follows by thesecrethunter, ramen-luver101, SomeoneInterested, Jarick, and xSmittenKittenx 3 all of you make me want to continue! This goes double for my reviewers of the last chapter, ramen-luver101, SomeoneInterested, and foxgirl1998! THANK YOU ALL!**


	7. Taijutsu

**Sooooooo sorry for the wait :( Fight scenes are hard for me, and this one may be slightly lacking (I'm not really sure... I ain't a fighter, I'm a lover ;p lol) I decided to split up a chapter that would originally have included the entire test, including the results, but I wanted to get this out to you guys ASAP! So please enjoy my amatuer take on how my Naru would fight :)**

**Don't Own Naruto!**

Naruto sprinted. She sprinted faster than she ever had before, ignoring the insignificant twigs and leaves swatting at her face. Her impeccable knowledge of the various Konoha training grounds zipped through her mind as well.

_The lake should be just a little further, on the right. As long as I can make it there without being seen, it should be easy enough to swim out of the vicinity…_ Naruto thought, a frown present on her face. However, while she was an optimist, Naruto knew that it wasn't going to be that easy. Whatever her brother had planned was going to be sly, underhanded, and would be almost impossible to accomplish. Her eyes darted back and forth, scanning the blurry foliage around her. Kakashi-sensei could be anywhere.

Sweat trickled down her neck as she strained her muscles to push even faster.

Without any hesitation, her body burst through the trees and entered the clearing in front of a serene lake. Her feet pounded the grass underfoot. She might just make it! With her toes of her left foot skimming the tips of grass in preparation to take that first, watery, step, a calm call reverberated from behind her.

"Doton: Doryuuheki."

Her left foot hastily changed purpose and instead of plowing into water, reached upwards to land firmly on the thick wall of earth that sprung up in front of Naruto and flipped her backwards off it. She landed low on her feet and rapidly rolled to the side before a tall figure appeared with a punch that decimated said rock wall. Her body lay flat in the grass, tensed to shoot up when necessary, as Naruto studied her attacker. Through the haze of residual dust, silver hair standing on end was visible. She scrambled up and into a clumsy stance.

"You sure have a nasty habit of running into the open, Naru. It's going to get you killed." She knew he was smiling in that creepy fashion he always smiled in.

"Yeah, well my reflexes will keep me alive. I'm too fast to be caught by-" The jounin flashed in front of the blonde, not permitting a respite in their battle. His fist was cocked back and ready for another punch. "-suprise!" Naruto squeaked out before twisting just barely out of her Nii-san's range. The saddest part of it all was that, when she stole another glance at Kakashi, it was obvious he wasn't even trying. One hand lifting his annoyingly perverted book to his face and the other obviously overextended, his posture screamed, "Take advantage of this idiot!" But even with these purposeful flaws, he could beat the crap out of her.

"Don't get cocky, Chibi. I taught you too well for that." His eyes flashed from his book to her eyes, furrowed under her brow. They were now almost three feet apart, a standoff, and he was patiently waiting for her to make the first move. With a gritting of her teeth, Naruto didn't want to leave him waiting.

Once again crouching low to the ground, Naruto used all the muscles in her legs to push forward. Her speed almost surprised Kakashi, if his slight hesitation showed anything. And Naruto capitalized on this. Using the brief opening her brother provided, she slipped under his book holding arm, twisted around to the side of his body, and flung her hands toward his exposed head. Naruto's determined eyes clenched shut in fear; _Please don't hurt Kashi-nii too bad…!_

Instead feeling the harsh resistance of his skull, Naruto felt a shattering pain in her side. She flew to the right, slamming against grassy ground. She dug her left hand into the dirt in an attempt to slow her momentum and retrieve her balance before Kakashi pounced on her again, but all she received was a sharp pain in her elbow and grass burns on her chest as she continued to slide. Naruto only managed to stop when her body hit a tree. Naruto took in the fact that she probably just hyper extended her elbow in a stupid move and at least three ribs were cracked, if not broken.

She hissed in pain. Stumbling to her feet, her good arm hugged her left tightly to her body for a couple seconds before the pain subsided. She glared at Kakashi.

He was standing in the same spot he was before, only looking at her with a disappointed look. How she hated that look. Naruto quickly looked away, dropping her now uninjured arm. Her ribs still hurt—maybe the broken bones were almost healed by now?—but she ignored it. Instead she focused on staring at the tree to her left. Anywhere but Kakashi.

"Never," Kakashi-sensei whisper, his tone grave, "shut your eyes in a battle."

She knew that.

"It will get you killed."

She knew that.

"In the life of a shinobi, killing others is necessary."

Damnit, she knew that!

"So, come at me again, Naruto. Come like you want to kill me." His voice was the steel of a kunai knife, slicing through her skin and muscle. It hurt more than her recently sustained injuries, even. Her deep blue eyes clouded over and she flinched. Her body had completely healed and it was calling out to do just what Kakashi wanted her to do, but her mind protested.

"If you don't want to fail, attack me."

With the biting of her lip, Naruto whirred into motion. Shoving a hand into her weapons pouch, Naruto pulled out two wooden shobo, slipping the familiar and worn leather around her middle fingers. And with a soft breath to calm her nerves and assure herself that this, the life of a shinobi, was what she wanted, she started. Dashing towards her mentor, Naruto still felt the hesitance in her mind, but refused to let it fester. She struck.

Her move to hit Kakashi's shoulder was blocked with a swipe of a hand. Naruto curled with it, brushing against Kakashi's vest-clad back as she spun to face him again. This time she aimed the shobo on her left hand at his neck. That hit didn't reach its intended target either though, as Kakashi ducked down quickly, swiping Naruto's legs from under her. Her head hit the ground and bounced a few times.

"Oomf!" Sitting dazed for a moment on the ground, Naruto's swirling vision only allowed her to discern an agonizingly amused eye. Naruto scuttled backwards ignoring her haze, intent on escaping from the jounin's reach. However, her plans were interrupted when Kakashi simply grasped her ankle and lifted her up.

"Better, Naruto," he said with a smile.

"But not good enough, Kashi-nii. I couldn't even touch you!" Naruto crossed her arms and upside-down pouted. Not that Kakashi could see; her blonde hair veiled her face.

"You're touching me now, aren't you Chibi?" Kakashi chuckled. He began to carry her swaying form over to the tree line.

Grumpily, Naruto attempted to brush the hair from her face so she could see the infuriatingly happy look on her Nii-san's face. Finally she tugged the hair tie from her wrist and caged her hair with it. "That's not what I meant and you know it, Kashi."

She could hear snigger bubbling from Kakashi's throat. Other than that, the only sounds were the rustling of leaves and the chirping of birds. Kakashi's footsteps while carrying her cumbersome form were still perfectly masked in silence. Naruto could feel the blood starting to rush to her ears and, if she were honest with herself, she wasn't a fan of the feeling. But if what Kakashi was currently doing told her anything, she'd be well acquainted with it.

Kakashi put the orange book back into his weapons pouch—he never removed it from his hand during the fight, Naruto noted angrily—and when his hand emerged, it contained a thin rope. Naruto paled at the sight.

"You know, you never had a chance of beating me anyway, Chibi," Kakashi mused, tying a knot around her ankle. "I'm a jounin, you're a genin. It's only natural that your skills alone wouldn't even faze me." His visible eye twinkled mischievously again. "Though," he mused with amusement, "if your teammates are as skilled as you, I would have had serious trouble against your unit. If you passed, that is." An impish grin graced Kakashi's face, not that Naruto ever noticed. Instead, the cogs of her brain were turning and an idea hastily sprouted inside her head. While she was preoccupied with a pensive look deeply etched into her face, something Kakashi noted happily, the jounin continued with his ministrations of attaching her leg to a tree via rope.

After a swift minute, Naruto's captured foot was tied securely to a branch seven feet above the ground, and she was left swinging there with a scowl as Kakashi disappeared in a swirl of leaves. She could have sworn she heard a loud laugh as he vanished. It didn't take long, however, for her scowl to morph into a snide smile. Her mind had hatched an idea that would force that laughing scarecrow onto his knees.

With a smirk oddly reminiscent of one brooding Uchiha survivor, Naruto's upper body curled up in an amazing show of strength and her hands deftly maneuvered the knot. It was loosening little by little, she could tell. And if the sun was anything to go by, she still had four hours to put her idea to the test.

**I hope you liked it! :( worried and all since its my first fight scene... and yes, Kakashi basically told Naru what she had to do, but he's her brother and he wants her to pass xD hahaha I realize that the whole healing on Naruto's part makes whether she knows about the Kyuubi ambiguous or not, but that will be explained later on.**

**Shobo are metal or wooden weapons that are mainly pretty much blunted rods, per se, that are attached to fingers with straps of leather and are used t hit pressure points to injure the enemy. While usually used to knock people out, if used with enough force they could cause fatal or serious injury.**

**Next chapter! Moreeeee Genin tests :p yayyyyyyy hahaha please review to tell me how I did! :D And sorry for the wait on this one, I'll try to get the next one up next saturday (no promises though!)**

**Thank you to fav-ers/followers of this storyy! -Nightmare's Death, pokerfacelove, Donutdan, Ryuji39, theshow07, PoeticNonsenseNinjaStyle, AnimalKrased, Targul.**

**Thank you ESPECIALLY to my two reviewers of the last chapter: ramen-luver101 and PoeticNonsenseNinjaStyle! 3**


	8. Never Bet Against an Uzumaki

**I'm so sorry for not updating for like... foreverrr! :( I really wanted to give you guys a beastly chapter full of Kakashi beating on Sasuke (i'm not Sasuke-bashing I swear! It's just that Sasuke needs a to be the bad guy in the team now that Sakura isn't there to catalyze it... though it'll change decently fast I swear :) ) in order to display Sasuke and Kakashis' fighting prowess, but I had the BIGGEST issues with it so I scrapped the entire thing and did this scene instead... It's considerably shorter because I wanted to get it out to you guys and I'll try to get another chapter up within the week as a sorry TT^TT**

**Happy Turkey Day all of you!**

***Don't Own Naruto***

"Please tell me you didn't just sleep here, Shikamaru…"

Dark and lazy eyes slid away from the sky. Shikamaru's silence was enough of an answer for Naruto. She should have expected that he wouldn't move, the lazy bum he is. She shook her head exasperatedly and sat a healthy distance from her to-be-teammate.

With her hands cupped behind her neck, Naru flopped down against the grass as well.

"You look kinda beat up there, Naru. Already fail?" Shikamaru probed, his languid drawl floating in the air. Naruto shrugged in a quiet response. So what if her hair, which she failed to tie into a ponytail, was now a bird's nest? Or that her skin was raw red from dragging on the dirt? Or that mud clung to her body and clothes like a leech? She'd looked worse before.

"Nah, Shika. I may have lost the battle, but not the war," she stated. A confident smile blazoned across her face.

"Oh… So you know what we're supposed to do then." It was more of a statement than a question. But then again, most of the Nara's questions were. Small clouds were meandering across the sky.

"Yeah."

"Our sensei isn't very subtle, is he."

A nostalgic smile. "Nope."

A small reprieve of noise settled between them before the dark-haired boy asked, "Shouldn't you be chasing Sasuke down and nagging him until he works with you then?"

Naruto pushed herself up from the ground and stared at Shikamaru long and hard. "Us, Nara. Us. Until he works with us." She shifted upright and crossed her legs to better look at her gazing profile. "I'm not letting you sabotage our chance of passing just 'cause you're a lazy bum." From the corner of his vision, Shikamaru could see a cocky grin grace her impish features.

Shikamaru sighed sadly. He should have known that being on a team with the number one knuckle-head of Konoha would lead to the most troublesome events. At least he wasn't on Ino's team; she would've nagged him non-stop.

"You'll have to find and convince Sasuke first, you know."

An even wider smile blared on her face. "More or less, Pineapple-head."

Shikamaru's head swiveled to gain access to the sight of her face. Naruto was awkwardly far from him for someone as outgoing and confident as her. She sat a good foot or so away, leaning on her elbows almost as if to get closer to him in familiarity. Something her purposeful distance contradicted.

In her blue eyes, framed by crazily messy hair, rested an unwavering assurance and in her set smile roared a sly joke that nobody else knew.

"More or less?" His inquiry egged Naru's grin into shit-eating proportions.

"Why, Uchiha is gonna come to us, perfectly willing to cooperate."

The lazy boy raised a single eyebrow in Naruto's direction. "I wouldn't bet on that, Naru."

"Yeah, well I am."

"…Suit yourself."

Slowly, Shikamaru went back to watching to the clouds pass by, attempting to mentally zone out of the environment so as to focus on nothingness as always. However, his partner's poise and self-assurance refused to leave his thoughts.

He could sense that she was sitting in the same place, her grime-caked face and clothes reminiscent of battle, taijutsu. He could tell that Naruto was wiping her cheek with the back of her hand, smudging dirt across her nose. He could feel that she was trying her hardest to reign in her rampant energy, resisting the urge to twitch or move as if she were waiting for something. But what? He knew that the Uchiha wouldn't be returning to the clearing. Nothing would ever convince Uchiha Sasuke to group up with the "Losers." Naruto of all people should know that.

So the question was: How is that blonde so sure in her belief? All evidence pointed against it. The chance of Sasuke coming back on his own was less than five percent, and the chance he'd come back willing to work with them shot that percentage to a mere point-six-five. Betting against those odds was simply stupid, even for Naruto.

With this in mind, she still had the biggest and most assured smile Shikamaru had ever seen. It perplexed him to no extent. Not even clouds could calm his tumultuous thoughts about her, and clouds were his remedy.

"Any moment now…" Shikamaru could hear the glee in her voice, but he chose to ignore the words and attempt to focus on the sky. She would be wrong and then that smile would morph into her classic "the Uchiha is involved and being an ass" scowl. That was it.

There was a shift in the grass next to Shikamaru as Naruto stood up and brushed off her pants. Naruto glanced down at her teammate, whose stoic face still searched the heavens, and stepped over his legs. She took a few, steady steps before stopping in a seemingly random spot. Shikamaru sat up and watched.

Within a couple seconds, as the girl's smile once again grew, a body flew from within the depths of the forest, skidding into place in front of the tiny, orange-clad girl. A smirking, tiny, orange-clad girl. Who turned around for the sole purpose to give a cheeky wink to Shikamaru, whose eyes were now huge in surprise.

It was the duck-butt-haired Uchiha Sasuke caked in dirt and blood dripping from his mouth and several lacerations. It looked as if a part of his arm was burnt and his shirt dripping. Naruto eyed his critically. If Shikamaru thought she looked bad, then what did he think about Sasuke right now? Obviously Kashi-nii didn't approve of Sasuke very much.

"How did you know?" Shikamaru's voice was breathy with disbelief.

Naruto poked the third teammate with her foot. A groan. She then proceeded to crouch down next to him and flip him over to see a dazed expression on Sasuke's face. A mirthful simper graced Naruto's face for the nth time that day as she answered Shikamaru, "Our sensei. He's not very subtle."

**So there you go; please read and review/give constrauctive critisism! :D The last bit of the test will be in the next chapter (hopefully, unless it gets super long which I don't want it to)!**

**EDIT! I totally forgot to thank everyone from the last chapter! D: I'm sorry! 3**

**I thank all the people who fav'd/followed me or my story! - DocBrown13, The Huminculi Twins, Helfyk, ShadowIceDragon, christina. , .18, TheBlackSeaReaper, and IRAssault! Thank you all :)**

**A special thanks to my reviewers from the last chapter: TheBlackSeaReaper, PoeticNonsenseNinjaStyle (You totally deserve this recognition!), and christina. !**


	9. Finally Victorious

**SO LONG. O.O It was to be even longer but I cut out a scene with Pakkun and the other nindogs because it was like playing a trump card way to early... Just so you all know, I had to CRANK this out for you, since it was REALLY hard for me to write with all the planning I had to (attempt) to do then execute, it was HORRIBLEEEEEE. But I hope you like it :) I kinda rushed at the end and might change itlater buttttttttttttttttttt yeah :) Present to you all! 3**

***Don't own Naruto***

Shikamaru snorted at her. Naruto had used the same words he'd just uttered not five minutes ago. Still, the way she said it… Shikamaru narrowed his eyes at the tiny girl cautiously eyeing the dead-to-the-world boy. There was a knowing in her eyes and a familiarity. Perhaps she had known Kakashi-sensei before yesterday? He could have sworn she called him Kashi the other day… But then again, Naruto herself was overly familiar towards people with higher rankings. And surely her chakra control would be way better if she were close to an elite jounin like Hatake Kakashi.

He was snapped quickly out of his rumination, however, when Naruto called him over. "How do we wake Teme here up, Genius?"

He shrugged, pacing over to her side. She was staring at the Uchiha, crouched next to him with her face a cautious distance. Somehow, a stick found its way to her hand and she was prodding Sasuke with it. Shikamaru raised a brow at the sight.

His feet nestled into the grass just out of Naruto's sight as she continued to poke. And poke, and poke. Despite her stimuli having no effect, she continued, not realizing her efforts were fruitless. Shikamaru matched her actions with the definition of insane: doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results—she sure fit the picture, still messy from her battle with Kakashi-sensei.

Not like he'd correct her or anything; he was content just by sitting there and watching the Uchiha's unconscious discomfort.

"Seriously, Shikamaru! He needs to be _alive_ if we want to pass! I bet it'll be-" Her sentence was never finished. In an attempt to level the Nara a classic Uzumaki pout, Naru discovered that her teammate was unbearably close; his skin mostly covered in cloth yet the scraps of bareness still serenading that part of her deep inside.

Her skin again seemed to twist and broil, all in a wanting to close the miniscule gap and make contact. Her skin cells whispered temptations, seductively betraying her will. Her eyes hooked onto the inch of naked skin pulsing at his wrist like a starving cannibal. Naruto's spine tingled with anticipation as she reached out towards the flesh, more than ready to sear and corrupt and-

Shikamaru's inquisitive eyes slid down to Naruto's prone figure, oddly quiet. Her hand was stretched out towards him and her eyes were in a misty daze. "Naru?"

"M'yeah…?"

A frown flitted across his face. That wasn't a good response.

"Shouldn't you be waking up Sasuke?"

Her clouded eyes met his clear ones. A pause. Then Naruto snapped out of her spell. Her hand zapped back to her side as her body tensed defensively.

"Sorry. Repeat that?" Naruto asked airily. Her eyes had quickly wilted away from his at this point. Not only that, but she had crawled a good foot away from Shikamaru as well.

Eying her trembling hands, Shikamaru posed, "Why don't you see if Sensei left any more clues in the scroll, Naru? I'll wake Sasuke up."

A scared and skittish Naruto wasn't something Shikamaru was used to seeing, but it was a scared and skittish Naruto that complacently nodded before bolting away from him and Sasuke as if she were an abused animal released from captivity. Shikamaru decided he didn't exactly like that kind of Naruto.

He got to work on resuscitating the last remaining Uchiha while the only female on his team darted off.

The raging boil within her blood was now tepid with space between her and the Craving's prey. A deep-seated cold had permeated her veins instead, drowning Naruto's senses. She had almost done it. Years of resistance and seals and she still couldn't deny the otherworldly yearning. She couldn't stop shivering.

With shaking fingers, Naruto lifted the abandoned scroll inscribed with obvious purpose. Despite herself, Naruto rolled her eyes at Kashi-nii's "delicate" hint. It was about as blunt as Kakashi would get, and Naruto would gamble on the fact that there'd be no more useful info on the paper. Focusing all her energy on the scroll, and on ignoring the tremors rattling her body, she searched the document for codes, invisible markings, meaningful bumps, patterns, anything, and ended up with zilch.

"There's nothing special I can detect, Shikamaru!" Naruto called out behind her.

"Yeah." Her partner was currently pulling out a small canteen from his utility pocket inside his jacket.

"Yeah?" Naruto inquired.

"I already checked, before you came back."

"Oh." She waited discomfited and praying that a topic would fly into her head so as to break the heavy silence encasing them, but failed to produce results. Shikamaru, on the other hand, seemed perfectly calm with the quietness, uncapping the container of water.

Wait, if he had already checked then why did he ask her to-

"SHIT!"

Naruto spun around, shobo already on each finger, and stood in a defensive stance. "Shika, what's wrong?" she screamed. Of course, Naru expected her Sensei to have initiated his assault, flinging Shikamaru to the ground unconscious and throwing Sasuke into a tree. The sight that met her instead, however, was a water-logged Sasuke shooting eye-kunai at an uninterested looking Shikamaru.

Naruto had the decency of at least attempting to cover her snickers with her hand.

"What the hell is your problem, Nara!?" Naruto broke out into full-fledged laughter when Sasuke's voice cracked in the middle. He glared harshly at her in return. "So you losers didn't even bother to try, huh? Well, Shikamaru over here is a so-called genius, guess he already figured out that it was impossible and convinced the dumbass to give up," he snidely remarked, pushing away from Shikamaru and brushing off his pants.

"Coming from the idiot that looks like he was bludgeoned by a rock slide?" Naruto had relaxed her posture and snidely smirked at Sasuke. "Come on Grumpy Pants, what did Kashi tell you before getting your ass handed to you?"

A glare.

"He left both Shikamaru and I clues, and despite common belief, even I'm not as dense as you! He had to of told you."

"…Hn." Sasuke's eyes darkened and his arms crossed. He was on the defense and he _knew_ what Naruto was talking about, but stubbornness held his tongue. Shikamaru stayed quiet, leaving the heavy lifting to the female on their team.

"If you don't want to cooperate, Shika and I will go on our own and escape."

"As if, Dumbass. You'd need me." Even Shikamaru looked at Naruto, now interested on her strategy.

"Actually Teme, Shika and I are specially equipped to fight Sensei. He's a genius strategist and could probably be able to stay a step ahead of Sensei with my information. You're the one we don't need to pass." Shikamaru's eyes narrowed. Whether or not they actually got out of the forest wasn't important, and Naruto knew that. In order to pass they needed to be a unified team.

"I'm the strongest here-"

"Maybe among us three, but I bet Shika and I could beat you together." Shikamaru's eyes widened in understanding. "Besides, Kakashi is the strongest, and he'd destroy you if you dared return to him alone, especially after his advice." The nonchalance in Naru's voice caused Sasuke's jaw and hands clench. "To pass, we need to work together. If we don't its simple, we will no longer be ninja and you'll never gain the abilities to enact your revenge." The boy's eyes raged mutely, and Shikamaru noted idly that Naruto had just won.

"…Have it your way then, Dumb-ass. But if I feel like you're pulling me down, I'm gone."

Naruto grinned in triumph before turning to the quiet member of the team. "Shikamaru?"

The boy in question simply shrugged in compliance. "Not working with you would just make this more troublesome, I guess…" She flashed a signature grin.

"Now that the team's all here, let's go break out of this forest!" And with this exclamation, Naru began to march out of the clearing.

Shikamaru sweat dropped at the girl's lack of foresight, and when he heard Sasuke sigh exasperatedly, Shikamaru couldn't help but relate.

"Dumbass, where do you think you're going? Are you actually stupid enough to go without any plan?"

Naruto froze. Laughing nervously, the blond turned to look at the dark-haired duo. "Plan? Of course I have a plan, Sasuke!" A sweet grin dripped from her pink lips.

"What is it then, genius?"

"…What was our plan again Shika?"

The laziest genin could only twitch in annoyance. Maybe being nagged at by Naru until they failed would have been less troublesome than helping her. "We didn't have one Naruto." He was fairly certain he heard a mumbled "traitor" slip out of her mouth. "But, if you want to come up with a plan, information would help," he stated, remembering briefly that Naruto mentioned something about having information vital to success.

"We don't have any info on him other than his name though. We never asked yesterday," murmured Sasuke, who had walked to where Shikamaru was standing. "All I can give is that his ninjutsu is fast and he favors lightning." Shikamaru nodded and looked at Naru.

"Umm… well… you see? Right…when I fought him earlier it was obvious he was holding back. Maybe he's underestimating us? Even though I couldn't even land a punch…" Naruto mumbled indignantly. She should have been stronger than that at least.

"Wait. Naru, you fought with taijutsu while Sasuke fought with ninjutsu?" When Shikamaru received confused nods from both in question, he drawled on, "Then we can expect genjutsu to be next. It's the only core shinobi skill set left." Shikamaru was now slightly interested. His sensei had obviously planned his assault ahead of time, testing his two teammates at their supposed strongest asset. What else had he planned out?

"Does anyone have any knowledge of this forest?"

Though Sasuke shook his head in a negative motion, Naruto's face brightened up considerably. "I have a map! Not like I need it though; I know all the village's forests like the back of my hand," she proclaimed with a wink. Reaching a hand to her waist, she plucked out the third scroll on her hip before tossing it to Shikamaru. "Just feed that baby some of your chakra to see the entire village. After that, find the red dot and focus your chakra there."

Shikamaru did as he was told and was amazed with the results. When he began to apply his chakra, color bled onto the white scroll. These colors swirled together and created a detailed map of Konohagakure with several locators. There was a blue diamond roughly where the academy was located, a yellow square for the HokageTower, and a random orange swirl that he could only guess was Naruto's house. Among these and other markings, Shikamaru spotted the red dot and focused on that area.

The ink swirled again, flying by in a vortex with the red dot the center. This time, the image was a lot more precise, showing many trees and rocks, depicting clearings throughout what Shikamaru assumed to be a ten mile radius.

"…This could work," Sasuke whispered with wide eyes. Naruto only smirked in triumph.

"It's my treasure, y'know?" Naruto laughed heartily in pride. She never noticed Shikamaru's overly-curious eyes.

"Naruto. Where did you get this?"

The girl looked up at the lazy genius from her happy jig. "I made it?" Naruto never thought that Shikamaru's lethargic gaze could ever be so piercing and meaningful. "Ok! I had some help, alright? Jeez… I did most of the seals myself! He only made the colors into clearer shapes and helped me with the close-up parts…"

"What does that leave you? The chakra activation?" Sasuke scoffed. Now, instead of glaring at the map, he was glaring at the girl.

Shikamaru's intellect was in full-swing now, curiosity waking it up from slumber. How could Uzumaki Naruto make such an intricate mechanism? Her written grades were average at best, barely passing in everything but the survival unit. She scarcely retained the number one kunoichi spot, hanging on with her skill in kunai, shuriken, taijutsu and the Henge. Not to mention her weird…thing with being close to people. And who was "he"? Kakashi, possibly?

Or, better still, who was _she_?

"But its wicked helpful, right Shika?" Naruto's bright eyes watched him closely, a smile imbedded in them.

Shikamaru's own eyes, now sharp with consideration, peered at the girl inquisitively before he answered, "With this, it should be easy to theorize where Kakashi would place traps."

"Traps?" The question was Sasuke's. He was leering over Shikamaru's shoulder to scrutinize Naru's map, mentally committing the entire picture to memory.

"Yes. Kakashi has structured this test into parts. The first part was testing our awareness and ability to react when unsuspecting. The second, which I'm guessing we're still in the middle of, consists of examining our abilities with taijutsu, ninjutsu, and genjutsu. I'm thinking that I was to be the target of the third, yet it seems almost irrelevant now that we're all together. The step after that is the actual escape of the forest, since we definitely shouldn't have succeeded in the first two parts of the test, and since he's planned this all out up until now, its safe to hypothesize that he has different obstacles in our way, probably traps he installed to impede our progress while we waited for him to arrive."

Naruto blinked. She couldn't recall ever hearing the genius say so much in one sitting before.

"Ok. What next then, Nara?" Sasuke questioned, no longer looking at Naruto's map. His eyes were instead scanning the trees around them for enemies, attempting to sense if Kakashi was getting close.

"First of all, these areas here," Shikamaru pointed out several clearings as well as paths, "are probably where Kakashi has set up ambushing traps or sites. These areas seem most likely to contain trip wires, pitfalls, and others." Shikamaru glanced up at his two attentive teammates with a sigh. It was too troublesome to talk so much. "If we had to choose, I'd rather avoid confronting any chance of ambush."

A small silence followed his explanation. Both Sasuke and Naruto looked contemplatively at their feet, deep in thought.

"In that case," Sasuke said, "we're heading south. Less ambush areas, despite the traps." With that said, he began to stride off.

"Teme wait," Naru called, brows furrowed in concentration. "The trees to the south are denser."

"You're point?"

"We'll have more blind spots."

"So will he, Dumbass." Sasuke had stopped in order to glower snidely in the girl's direction.

Naruto sneered right back. "Yeah, but you forget that he's a jounin. No matter how well we mask our chakra, Kashi-sensei will probably be able to sense us without us sensing him. It's a win-win for him yet a loss-loss for us."

The two rivals stayed like that, locked in an angry gaze. Infuriated lightning bolts soared between them, combating for an upper hand. Shikamaru rested to the side of the growing storm, with half-lidded eyes.

"It would be harder for him to move."

"Harder for us to move."

"He would be easy to flank and get better angles to attack from."

"Not if he knows where we are anyway, Teme."

"Dumbass."

"Ass hole!"

"Bitch."

"Duck-butt!" Naruto screamed in rage, practically frothing at the mouth. Her muscles twitched, wanting to grab his stupid Uchiha neck and ring it. Her skin began to burn and crawl, right along with her fury.

"You two are stupidly troublesome…" Shikamaru mumbled. "Naruto is right, Sasuke. We can easily go around ambush spots and keep our vision clear as well if we go east." The lazy boy immediately regretted opening his mouth when Sasuke's death glare was being beamed towards him or when Naruto's obnoxiously bright eyes flared with eager appreciation.

"See Sasuke! Pineapple-head aggress with me!"  
"He's just the dobe, baka."

"Like I said," Shikamaru groaned to the sky, "troublesome."

Soon, much to Sasuke's chagrin and Naruto's vanity, the trio had walked off to the northeast and into sparser trees. Their formation was set by the resident genius, almost perfect for their team. The blond-headed sprite was the vanguard, warily eyeing each step she made for ninja wires or other triggers while leading them. Shikamaru was in the middle, the brain of their organization. Having already memorized the blotches of ink that appeared on Naruto's map, he told Naruto which areas to avoid or to be careful about. Bringing up the rear was Sasuke, the protector of their group. While their other fighter, Naruto, was distracted with directions and traps, he would keep them safe.

Well, perfect in theory.

"Wait! guys! Don't step there!" Naru screeched, peeking back to see her two teammates stepping into a wire she herself had seen and avoided. Within seconds, a loud snap banged against trees as a thick metal net wrapped the two boys up in its embrace. Jumbled together in a jigsaw puzzle of limbs and a symphony of cusses, Shikamaru and Sasuke hung three feet off the ground. Two onyx eyes shot bolts of fire at the tiny yellow-haired imp.

"Kami, guys… didn't you see the stupid thing? You're supposed to step over it. _Over,_" she whined, lethargically taking out a kunai from her weapons pouch. Jumping upwards, her nimble hands latched onto the netting as she reached high to cut her squad down from their prison.

"Naruto!" the Uchiha seethed. "You are the one who's supposed to be watching for traps and actually warning us, dumbass!" If his hands weren't occupied with their current awkward position, he'd be wringing her neck right now.

Her pout emphasized above them, her knife getting to the last few strands of wire suspending them. "But c'mon Sasuke, that trap was _so_ obvious…"

_Snap!_ With an agonizing thud, the two males were dropped unceremoniously on the ground while the only girl gracefully flipped back to land on her feet.

"Besides, no harm no foul!" Her cheeky grin was back. However, the upward tilt of her lips dropped hastily when she realized even Shikamaru held a little ire in his gaze. "Okay! Sorry… Every stupid trap then…" She crossed her arms childishly and trotted forward again. "This way, this way," Naruto ushered dully.

Shikamaru and Sasuke followed with hesitance, flinching with each crackle of branch under their feet. When Naruto suddenly stopped mid-step and bent down, the both of them froze nervously. She shuffled slightly, grunting with exertion, before popping right back up as if nothing had occurred. The two boys shared a nervous glance and she pocketed whatever it was that she had been fiddling with.

Swinging on a pointed finger was a wire with a tiny bolt tied at the end. Without looking back, Naruto flung the shiny objects far into the trees before proclaiming, "Pin trigger."

There was a tense silence for a few moments: Sasuke still infuriated over his previously compromising position, Shikamaru still annoyed by the inability of his team to listen to his plan, and Naruto now upset by her teammate's scolding. Only the wind fluttering through the tree leaves whistled in the forest.

"Naruto, we're taking a right here," drawled Shikamaru, deciding that if the tree canopies covered the clouds lofting above him, he didn't want to stay there. The girl nodded affirmation and followed his directions, warily moving across leafed ground. The brown leaves that had fallen were getting stuck in her sandals, annoying the girl to no extent, yet Naruto held her tongue, sensing the strain on all of them. Taking an exaggerated step over air and bringing more crisp leaves into her sandal with a grimace, Naru motioned with a sweep of her hand to the ground she had just crossed. Both boys nodded and stepped over what they grudgingly presumed to be a wire as well.

The trio carried on with a little chitchat as possible, egos still clashing horrendously. With semi-quiet footsteps, they simply continued to traverse through the woods and obstacles their sensei had left for them, some blaringly obvious and others intricately difficult. Naruto strode along the preordained path Shikamaru had setup confidently, leading them away from any possible ensnarement. Her darting eyes began to grow tired from scrutiny when he spoke up.

"Naruto, you're going the wrong way."

Eyebrows scrunched in confusion, said girl met the gaze of the Nara. "We agreed to take this path, Shikamaru."

Sasuke walked up to the other boy in the team. "Baka, just listen to him. Nara is more intelligent than riffraff like you."

Naruto snarled at Sasuke, no longer watching Shikamaru's hazy eyes drag across the trees.

"Yeah, well riffraff like me grew up in this damned forest, teme," she growled out, "and I say that Shikamaru is wrong."

The genius in question snapped out of his mechanical scanning of the area they occupied to focus on Naruto for a moment. With a shrug, he pointed over to a random oak and muttered, "That's the landmark right there, if you don't believe me."

She did indeed look because she didn't indeed believe him. To her confusion, all she saw was another tree. Naruto attempted to discern any differences in its bark that could possibly score it as a pointer, but like any other foliage, it was perfectly normal. There weren't any scratches, blotches, or odd features. Just a tree.

"Umm… Shikamaru…?" She looked back at what she thought was the correct path, and she could practically see the end of their journey.

But Naruto went unheard as Sasuke marched off in the direction Shikamaru had shown to them with haughty steps. And although Naruto was never one to give up, she calmly let this one slide. After all, she owed both the boys some concessions for trapping them in a giant net trap. Pushing Shikamaru forward and out of his lazy cloud, Naru caught up to the Uchiha to take her spot back in the front with a scowl.

Persisting along, the small girl made sure to disengage each trap she noticed. However, those traps were becoming sparser and easier to take apart. Naruto frowned.

"We must be getting close to the circumference" Shikamaru yawned, slouching behind the apprehensive girl. Naruto worried her lip. This wasn't right. She knew it wasn't right. They're heading straight towards the clearing she always used for kunai practice… in the center of the training ground. She lead them around the perimeter of the open clearing, feeling uncomfortable being so close to one of Shikamaru's so-called "danger zones." Even Sasuke was anxiously peering around, suspicious of Shikamaru's choice. And that's when Sasuke realized it.

With a gust of wind in his wake, his hand wrapped around Shikamaru's wrist while the other grasped Naruto's collar. Powerful legs had enough muscle to propel all three of them away from a crushing punch.

"Naruto! Get Shikamaru out of this damn genjutsu!" Sasuke cried out as another destructive punch dug inches into the tree they just hid behind. With the slightest of hesitance, Naruto touched her palm to Shikamaru's forearm and flooded an exaggerated amount of chakra into Shikamaru's system to disrupt the Nara's chakra flow. She wouldn't be surprised if his arm would be raw from trivial chakra burns later on.

A choking sound hailed Shikamaru's return to the real world.

"Move!"

Scrambling in different directions, the trio separated. Naruto ran off into the woods, disappearing within the bushes in a second while Sasuke took to the branches, jumping up as high as he could before hopping through the canopies. Shikamaru, who had ducked underneath the bone-crushing kick, flipped behind a tree trunk for protection from the next onslaught of kicks and punches.

Mind still fuzzy from prolonged exposure to foreign chakra, the shadow-user fumbled to flee. Wobbling, Shikamaru sprinted away from the clearing in an endeavor to put thinking distance between him and his assaulter only to be stopped by Kakashi's body. One skid later, the boy was now running back towards the clearing with a distressed expression. _Where the hell are Naruto and Sasuke?!_

"Now, now Shikamaru. You know better then me that you don't stand a chance against me," Kakashi's clear voice rang about him. Shikamaru refused to look back at the pursuer. "Especially since you're greatest asset is inhibited." The boy winced at the blankness in his mind, the adrenaline beating too fast within his brain to form a cogent thought or plan.

He broke through the tree line to end up in a meadow surrounded by trees with scratches imbedded in them. No teammate was in sight. This was so troublesome.

Shikamaru turned his body to face his to-be mentor, half-lidded eyes drilling lazy holes in the man. Seconds passed in silence and Kakashi advanced on the still student, wary of the sly trick the genius would have up his sleeve. While physically the weakest of his bunch, the Nara was definitely the most dangerous opponent with that mind of his.

Their stand-off was brief however, when Shikamaru spurred into motion.

"I surrender." Shikamaru had his hands barely raised above his head in an innocent gesture. "This test is too troublesome to bother with."

The jounin paused, blinking owlishly. "Umm… you sure about this?" Shikamaru shrugged in response, lowering his hands back to his pockets with a slouch. Kakashi's eyes narrowed at the action, but brushed it off as he took out ninja wire. "To the tree you go then."

The duo strolled over to a tree without a thought in the world. Shikamaru yawned, waving the man off with his hand as he amicably slid down the trunk to be knotted up. With a flick of his wrist, a silver wire trailed out from Kakashi's palm. Swiftly wrapping the filament around Shikamaru and binding him to the tree, Kakashi hummed with self-appreciation. _Now, onto the other mongrels._

"Shikamaru, don't you even _think_ about making us fail!" a blonde loudmouth roared, tackling her sensei's legs. Kakashi buckled under the hit and their two bodies tangled in a roll across the leaf-covered grass. Sasuke seized this time to drop from the leaves above their third teammate and consequently cut Shikamaru free. He glared at the incensed Nara before leaping into the orange and navy fray. Shikamaru hung his head in disappointment. _How did I know that it wouldn't end there…_

Naruto bolted from the ground as her nii-san disappeared in a cloud of cloying smoke. Eyes darting, her heartbeat hastened crazily, almost as if it would pop straight out of her ribcage. The whistle of shuriken reached her ears, and she jumped backwards in order to avoid the projectiles only to slam into a rock hard chest. Squeaking, the girl flipped around with a reverse kick aimed for Kakashi's head. However, with a swift movement the kick was caught and Naruto was flung away, spinning horizontally to the ground.

It was a dizzying experience, Naru realized, as she scraped across the grassy ground and ate a mouthful of dirt. Coughing roughly, Naruto trembled to arise from the grass, but was forced to quickly hop back on her heels with a grunt of pain as Kakashi charged back at her. Kakashi's face remained in his infuriating smile as he threw ounch after punch that Naruto could barely evade.

Naruto groaned in pain, overextending her already bruised shoulder in an attempt to retaliate against her sensei. She quickly paid for her mistake as her body was smashed against a tree. Shaking it off, Naruto bolted back towards the waiting jounin. Just as her first punch flew, Sasuke joined their battle. He tried to grapple Kakashi so that Naruto's punch could make contact. Still, the man was an elite ninja for a reason and adeptly dodged the grab, forcing Naruto to instead hit Sasuke square in the jaw.

"Damnit Naruto!" the boy hissed.

Not waiting for her teammate to regain balance, Naruto continued her attack, swirling around her brother to find an opening she could capitalize on. Every time she found one though, he was quick to readjust and made it impossible to act upon. Growling, Naruto couldn't seem to get an upper hand on him. Not even when Sasuke once again joined her.

The two were clumsily matched, either missing their target only to hit the other or simply taking the same route of attack and colliding, Sasuke and Naruto were practically doing more damage to each other than what Kakashi was doing to them. The two clashed horribly, sending off so many sparks that it was a miracle the forest hadn't burned down already.

"Left." Sasuke pointed to himself. "Right." Sasuke pointed to Naruto. With a glower, the Uchiha boy didn't even wait for confirmation as he ran off to the left of the silver-haired man. Snarling, Naruto did as she was told and veered to the right. Naruto could only hope Sasuke knew what he was doing, because he sure looked significantly slower than their last attack.

Kakashi built some distance and watched warily as both the Uchiha and Uzumaki approached on either side of him. Staggering, Naruto sped up and curled towards Kakashi at a sharper angle, flinging out a sweeping keep at the masked man's feet. Kakashi was obliged to take to the air, jumping above the strike and playing into Sasuke's attack. The boy had by then reached the two, cocking an arm back to hit his to-be sensei. Realizing their move, Kakashi stretched out his arm, planting it steadily on the Uchiha's head, and sprung off, soaring behind Sasuke, who took a face plant.

Kakashi landed elegantly and made to turn back to face the two children when he suddenly found it hard to move. He then noticed his shadow was abnormally long. His eyes slid to lock onto a crouching Nara, half-asleep. He felt a little silly forgetting about the third genin, but smiled inwardly. He'd give him this round.

"Sasuke. Naruto. We need to get back on track and get away from here," Shikamaru grunted. He noticed Kakashi's restraint in movements, irritated at his obvious aid in their favor.

"But you've caught him Nara, we should end it here," said Sasuke, flipping out a kunai. Naruto angrily eyed the offensive object.

"I can't hold him much longer. The objective is to escape, and to escape we need to leave _now!"_ he commanded, shocking the other two. Sweat was dripping in heavy droplets down his neck and he hadn't really done anything. He was too smart to believe Kakashi was actually attempting to escape.

With a nod, Naruto bolted off in the direction she discerned as the correct pathway to follow. Sasuke trailed the blonde after giving Shikamaru a murderous leer. Shikamaru met the eyes of his sensei before releasing his clan's jutsu and sprinting off after his two companions. Why did he have to be placed on what had to be the most troublesome team in all of Konoha?

None of the younger ninja noticed Kakashi disappear in a fog of smoke.

Puffs of air were erupting from Shikamaru's chest when he finally caught up to the two other genin. Luckily Naruto had enough sense to stop and wait for their third instead of just leaving him to catch up on his own.

"We need… to keep going," he gasped.

Naruto, who was previously sitting cross-legged on the ground, walked over to the smartest of their group and looked into his eyes with a hard stare. She wanted to itch at her annoying skin, which had been acting up with all the endorphins running rampant in her system, but instead chose to swing her hands down hard on Shikamaru's shoulders and pushed him down. Said boy gazed surprised at his comrade, a little irked by her actions.

"We're taking a break. Right, Sasuke?"

Leaning against a tree with his arms crossed, he didn't even bother looking at the two. "Hn."

Shikamaru didn't have to be told twice, he was snoring within seconds.

Naruto moved from her position to find a gap in the tree tops. "We have about an hour left, Sasuke," she commented, dragging fingers through gnarled locks of hair. She kept her senses open for any oncoming attacks, but couldn't discern any shifts in the atmosphere. Reluctantly peeking at the female, Sasuke nodded solemnly, getting off the tree he was leaning on. "Where are you going?"

"Covering our tracks so Kakashi won't be able to follow them. Something you obviously have no talent of, according to your record of being caught by Iruka."

Naruto snorted in distaste and allowed Sasuke to do as he wished. She knew that it wouldn't make much of a difference; if Kakashi wanted to track them he'd simply summon his ninken to hunt them down, and no amount of brushing away footprints could mask their scent from the hounds.

Not that she'd tell Sasuke that. The farther from her the better, in her book.

Naru permitted Shikamaru fifteen minutes of rest before rousing him to complete their exercise. Calling Sasuke back from wherever he was, all of them returned to their old system of listening to Shikamaru's directions while Naruto dismantled traps, though now Sasuke made sure their tracks were invisible and Shikamaru made sure to keep his mind free from the haze of genjutsu. They marched forward jadedly until they finally saw the light at the end of the tunnel: the clearing that lead to the bridge Naruto had crossed earlier that morning, her apple core discarded and yellowing at the river's bank.

They all shared a smile, or a smirk in Sasuke's case or a yawn in Shikamaru's, before plopping down resignedly on their butts, waiting for the sun to droop low enough to call their new sensei to them.

**YAY! Now goodnight dear readers and hopefully reviewers! 3 I'll try to update ASAP to get to the Wave Arc!**

**I FORGOT! Thanks to all my lovely new followers/fav'ers: dariousshurt55, .kitten, Yuri-Hime-chan, Church017, Ariel Night, GLP2814, gjjones, double1squad, Iceflame55, slatedfox, and Mitsuki-Nakamura! Also I love my reviewers very much! THANK YOU! - christina. and Yuri-Hime-chan**


	10. Ingrained in the Skin

**SORRY FOR THE LATE CHAPTER! :(**

**Stuff has been really busy amd this chapter is kinda really boring (but necessary). It builds a little on some relationship info and a couple hintings at what is wrong with Naru(to), though it'll mostly stay under wraps still. Also, for those who are wondering, Sasuke WILL become a bigger character in this story soon, hopefully in a way that will suprise you a little bit... hopefully...**

**Either way, I'm finally posting this on a horrible night and its extra long (for me at least) at EIGHT PAGES D: NO WAY! hahahahaha please dont be annoyed at the lackluster plotpoints in this, but I had to make the boring transition somewhere... I'm not jumping straight into the Wave Arc either, as there will be some team bonding and possibly one major mission before we reach that milestone!**

**Enjoy!**

****Don't Own Naruto!**

It turns out, the trio didn't even have to wait for the sun to drop low for Kakashi to arrive. Instead, he was simply sitting in his reading spot on the tree branches, tucking Icha Icha into his weapons pouch. With a sense of pride, he looked at his new team. They would definitely be handful, what with the entire clash of personalities, but they'd be amusing and more importantly they'd become great.

Sure, Uchiha Sasuke was driven by an inherent desire to kill his brother and held a pride so severe that he was practically a social recluse, but he had displayed the ability to get over that. Plus, Kakashi couldn't deny the boy his skills. The sheer fact that he could already use Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu in a fight had amazed Kakashi to some extent.

And Nara Shikamaru. While he hadn't seen much from this particular genin during the exercise, the intelligence swimming in his dark eyes told more than enough. He had been able to use a simple map to effectively cut off almost all chances of encounters, forcing the jounin to interfere with genjutsu. If he wasn't so damned lazy and built up his stamina, he'd probably be one of the best.

He couldn't help but smile in Naru's direction.

She had grown: her (abysmal) height, her ninja skills, her willingness to share with others. She had truly grown into a decent twelve-year old from the cowering and annoying ball of childishness she once was. While he still needed to talk to her about the duties of ninja—primarily killing and hurting others—her speed was above par, as was her endurance and affinity for traps, though she obviously lacked a certain tactical aspect of battle if she found it fine to leave her two teammates to notice a trap when it was her job to do so. He already knew her shortcomings with genjutsu and difficulties with ninjutsu, but he'd help her with those as her official sensei now.

He was a sensei now.

That proud smile of his only grew wider.

"Nice job, chibis!" he called out, hidden behind leaves. All three of his genin jumped. Silly little things, so innocently unobservant. He'd have to fix that. "Congrats on passing your genin final!" With a clap of his hands and a swirl of leaves, Kakashi body appeared in the middle of their clearing. Shikamaru blinked owlishly. Sasuke 'hn'd. And Naruto had no qualms with rushing up and hugging her nii-san. The two boys raised an eyebrow at her. Must be a girl thing. Kakashi absently patted her head.

"You are now officially Team…" Kakashi paused for dramatic effect. His eyes were scrunched up in mirth. The children's heads all inclined forward. "Kakashi!"

There was a following silence.

"…No way in hell am I being Team Scarecrow, Kashi! It sounds like we're just here in the off chance demonic crows invade!" Naru's pout was glowering full force, her arms indignantly crossed across her chest. "That's not cool at all!" she whined.

Kakashi suddenly thought that perhaps he was wrong. Naru was still that annoying ball of childishness.

"I'd have to agree with that useless one there, Kakashi. It sounds stupid to me…" Sasuke trailed off, slight panic in his eyes. No way would he be stuck with that team name.

Rolling his eyes, Kakashi muttered a quick, "Ungrateful brats," which Naruto heard and proceeded to harrumph and go sit near the sleeping Shikamaru and panicking Sasuke.

"Team Kakashi it is! And Team Kakashi it will be until you can beat me in a spar," the jounin intoned to his blanching students. Oh, he was going to have fun with these guys.

Naruto squirmed in the grass with a scrunched nose before nodding with acceptance. She would beat him one day for sure, and get the name changed to Team Maelstrom, believe it!

Kakashi took her acquiescence in stride, allowing for a shift in mood. He briefly went over the details of the next day's meeting before realizing that the training ground they were currently situated was no longer bright with the sun's beams, instead darkened in shadow only speckled by the light of the stars and moon. Grass, the blades not trampled or dug up from training, swayed lightly in the autumnal breeze which also played gently with their hair. Kakashi had initially wanted to show them the Memorial Stone after their training, but maybe it was a good time to send them off. There was always another day to explain to them the importance of working together.

This thought only solidified in his head when Kakashi noticed his little blond sister nodding off, her head bobbing sleepily against her chest. Softness reached his brotherly gaze before noticing Shikamaru had, in fact, passed out quite a while ago in the grass and Sasuke's eyes were furrowed deeply in concentration to stay in the waking world.

Sighing, Kakashi ordered, "Dismissed. Get a good rest, but don't forget to eat a healthy dinner." He specifically gazed at Sasuke while saying this, and the Uchiha rolled his eyes in dismissal. The jounin's eyes narrowed dangerously, but instead he waved his troops off home. Pushing off his tree, Sasuke made for a hasty retreat. His muscles were sore in places he didn't even know exist.

"Also, before you go. You all have homework: think on the purpose of this test and tell me its meaning tomorrow. Understood?"

The boy never looked back or showed any sign of having heard.

"Naru?"

"Just one second, Kashi-nii. Let me wake up Shikamaru and I'll be right there," the blonde mess told her brother, lightly. She flashed him a large smile with hazy eyes and, though Kakashi didn't wanted to leave her in a half-dream state, the least he could do was treat her as an adult now.

A somber nod. "Just don't be late," he whispered and skulked off, back to their apartment

Naru snorted. "As if you're one to talk, Sensei." She could sense her brother's wry smile.

When he was finally gone, Naru reached her hand to hesitantly touch her lazy teammate's shoulder. "Yo, Shikamaru. Wake up already you lazy bum, it's time to head home." When he didn't stir, Naruto's shakes got more violent and her whispers grew in volume. He was a clan kid, and an heir at that. Surely his parents would be worried for him if he didn't return home by a decent hour. Especially when his new sensei was the infamously ruthless Hatake Kakashi.

"Shikamaru, come on, wake up! Shika!" In the tranquility of the training ground, her voice seemed to echo and intensify loudly. She growled at his unresponsiveness, moving to the stream nearby. With a wicked snicker, her prankster nature got terrible hold of her as she cupped as much frigid water in her preteen hands as possible.

"You better not be doing what I think you're doing, Uzumaki," came the lazy drawl. Said Uzumaki's hands flew to her sides, releasing the liquid from its cage.

Innocently blinking her eyes in his direction, Naru asked, "Doing what, Shikamaru?"

Instead of answering her question and ploy, the dark-haired boy muttered the usual, "Troublesome woman." He slowly sat up from his grassy bed and rotated his shoulder. When the satisfying pop! came, Shikamaru sighed in slight satisfaction.

Naruto, flinging stray droplets from her palms, sauntered back over. "Stop calling me troublesome, Lazy Bum. We're teammates now," she said, punctuating the sentence with a broad smile.

The Nara glanced at her disbelievingly. "All the more reason as to why you are troublesome…" he grumbled.

The blonde took it all in stride, simply sticking her tongue out playfully. "Hurry up Shika, you should be heading home. It's getting dark."

"I'm fine here, thanks."

Placing her fists on her slim hips, Naru scowled at him. She growled, "Your family is probably waiting for you."

"More like my troublesome mother is waiting to nag at me."

Naru's eye twitched. She peeled off a layer of flaking mud on her arm before chucking it angrily at the ground. "What's so wrong with that, Nara? It just shows that she cares for you."

Shikamaru rolled his eyes and scratched the back of his neck. He hastily recognized the fact that his teammates ire was growing. "You don't get it, my mother is just annoying," he explained with a slow blink. The heir took his sweet time to yawn widely enough for tears to spring at his eyes lackadaisically. Unfortunately, he miscalculated his answer.

When he recovered from his yawn, his half-lidded eyes met the furiously flashing eyes of Naruto, the usually bright cerulean dimmed down into a torrential navy. "You're right," she whispered dangerously, "I don't understand."

With that, she began to storm away from her teammate. Pausing quickly, she screamed back, "Get your ass back home so you don't pull us down tomorrow, Nara!" Her voice cracked painfully in the middle, but she continued on as if it hadn't happened.

Shikamaru looked on confused at her retreating back. Women. Who could ever understand them.

_B_R_E_A_K_

"Kashi-nii! I'm home!" Naruto howled, remnants of anger still in her being. She chucked her dirty ninja sandals against the wall, letting them lay in the corner abandoned. Nostrils still flaring and puffing chest, she peeled her orange vest from salty skin to leave her torso only covered by her black sports bra and fishnet shirt. She wiggled out of her scroll pouch, letting it drop by the door as well as her weapon pouch, which she hastily slid off her leg with a thump.

Stomping past the tiny enclave that made up their apartment entrance, Naru entered the main room still simmering. She snorted at the table placed in front of their bright red couch, noting the newly organized papers and ink brushes, the way that the pillows were carefully arranged instead of haphazardly being strewn through the house. She noted the delicious aroma wafting to her from the semi-connected kitchen where Kashi-nii probably resided. She snorted angrily again and wondered, what kind of idiot wouldn't want to come home when this kind of care was waiting for him?

"Umm… Naru? You good?" Kakashi called from the kitchen. Naru cursed at herself for forgetting to reel in her unwieldy chakra.

"Yeah, I'll get over it with a nice shower, Kashi-nii," she hollered back, stretching her limbs and cracking her back. She eyed the neat table warily before swiping her hand across the surface, smiling when the brushes were no longer aligned from smallest to largest. Kashi-nii was too anal about these things sometimes.

Padding past the entrance to the kitchen, Naru poked her messy head in. "Wanted to tell you, salt is in the top right cupboard now," the girl warned, seeing Kakashi nod his head thankfully as he was stooped over the stove.

"Thanks Chibi."

Walking to the bathroom door, Naruto attempted to comb her fingers through her hair in a last ditch effort to tame her appearance before looking at herself in the mirror. When her hand became nestled in a series of knots, she forfeited. She quickly opened the door and stripped, taking in the dirt and grass plastered onto her skin and hugging her hair, that plus the addition of her muscles' soreness, she could hear the water calling for her. Naruto allowed the steam to build and swirl around the small room before actually entering the spray of water. It stung and bit nastily at her back, burning away the tension in her shoulders and neck.

Shikamaru didn't know anything. At least, nothing that mattered. Sure he was a genius, brilliant, amazingly witty, but he was simply stupid, incorrigibly so. Naruto growled lightly, reaching an arm back so her fingers could trace the top of her spine and move down as far as her flexibility would let her.

Shikamaru couldn't understand the loneliness she experienced.

After a taxing battle against her hair, Naruto finally emerged from the shower squeaky clean, smelling like oranges and citrus. Her smooth hands had grown wrinkled with over-exposure to water and her skin contained a decent shade of pink that resulted from furious scrubbing.

Getting dressed in a loose shirt and shorts, Naruto wrapped her orange towel securely around her head and directed herself to the kitchen.

With her stipend from the Hokage and Kakashi's constant influx of money from missions, the duo had been able to afford a decently large apartment with two bedrooms and a single bathroom with a large living room. However, where these aspects excelled, the kitchen failed. It had taken almost three years for them to replace the appliances with those of good quality, and the actual room for the kitchen was too small to hold a table.

Instead, when Naru grabbed a plate of rice and chicken, she hopped up onto the counter, planting herself cross-legged on the surface and shoveling food into her mouth angrily. Kakashi joined her, simply leaning against the counter as he calmly scooped rice into his mouth. Naruto had the decency to no longer stare in wonder at Kakashi's face without his mask.

Lazily swallowing, Kakashi asked, "What've you been up to while I've been gone?"

Naruto smiled wryly, teeth cluttered by rice. He always asked, and the answer was always the same: "You know the answer to that, Kashi-nii. What have you been up to?" And by now, Naru had long finished her plate and was looking expectantly at her brother.

"And you know the answer to that, chibi," he mirthfully replied. "It's classified."

Naruto pouted, crossing her arms across her chest. "Please Kashi-nii?" She pleaded.

The man in question laughed, bare lips pulling up into a roguish smile. He took both their plates; his went to the sink while hers was heaped on by rice. Kakashi handed Naru her food before pushing his snowy hair from his forehead, regretting the fact that he had already taken off his headband. He took a one-eyed glance at the still pouting girl and sighed in defeat.

"Alright chibi, you win," he mumbled, stealing the girl's plate of food and maneuvering his free arm around her waist.

Squealing, Naruto swung from underneath his armpit like a rag doll before being plopped down on the couch. She scrambled into the corner, hugging a bright pillow to get comfortable for "story time."

The silver haired jounin took one glance at the messed up brushes and raised a silent brow in question. Naru smiled cheekily.

"We'll, I can't say much about it," Kakashi started, sitting down on the other side of the couch, "but I will say that I was a bodyguard for a very important person."

"Was it a princess?" Naruto asked excitedly, her eyes wide.

"Not a princess, but still a leader of a country who was being targeted by an opposing party, and it was my job to..." He paused, debating whether or not to approach the inevitable topic with his adoptive sister, but decided he could go over it when he was "Sensei," not Nii-san. So he continued, "discourage the opposition and make sure they couldn't get to my employer." He smiled ruefully.

"And? Did they get to your employer Kashi-nii?" Naru asked, knowing the answer.

"Of course not," he scoffed, eyeing the now forgotten rice on the table. "I got to them before they even got close." Kakashi failed to mention the fact that he had found their base in a brothel, infiltrated it, and assassinated the leader and his top men ruthlessly. Even if it wasn't top secret, Kakashi would never tell her that.

Naru cooed at his declaration, glorifying eyes roving his face for any sign of more information. The cerulean orbs shone with pride and excitement, obviously scrying into the future to the day where she would be accomplishing the same tasks for her village.

And Kakashi could only smile sadly at the bright innocence and naivety within them. As a brother, he wanted to preserve that state of mind, but as a Sensei he needed to tear the security from her and bathe her in blood. He felt a pain of regret from the first moment her taught her about taijutsu, wishing the path of a shinobi wasn't one she wanted.

Kakashi shook it off hastily, knowing nothing could change her mind now. He flicked her smartly on the nose with a grin. "Alright chibi, I told you what you wanted. You know the drill!" he called affectionately.

While scowling a little at the nickname, the young girl mumbled, "They're still in good condition, keeping most of the hunger away, but they haven't eliminated it... It's like a tiger prowling around the edges of my consciousness ready to pounce when my neck is bared..." Naru shuddered as she said this, hugging her pillow closer to her. "Especially around crowds or when I'm angry or nervous, then I really feel it."

Kakashi pat her head comfortingly, dipping his head to look at her evasive eyes. "Well, we were never sure whether the Fuja Hoin was strong enough to seal it or not, even with the modifications Jaraiya helped us with. Especially if it's a byproduct of the Kyuubi," he gently reminded her. "But you're doing amazing, Naruto." She smiled tiredly in return. "Now," Kakashi started with an eye smile, "let's checkup on those seals!"

Slowly twisting so that her back faced her brother, Naruto was prepared for the probing fingers lifting the back of her shirt. She squirmed at the cold touch and clutched at the pillow. Breathing deeply, the blonde stayed silent for the inspection.

For this, Kakashi opened both his eyes, Sharingan flaring to life in order to scrutinize every black stroke and inky line scrolling down her spine. Still in the same perfect condition as the day he inked the characters, carving them into Naruto's back, the chakra infused symbols rested within the grooves of her spine from where her hairline started to where her pelvis began.

Knowing next to nothing about Naruto's condition, the painful procedure of carving suppression seals into her back was the best he could do, modifying the shape to specifically target the area where reflex begins: the spinal cord. And since that's just what her condition was, a reflex, it was the only place they could locate the Fuja Hoin where it wouldn't interfere with the Shiki Fuin.

"Are you done? You're hands are cold," probed Naru, peering back at Kakashi. He muttered a quiet sorry before leaning back into the heavenly comfortable sofa. He could hear Naru stifle a yawn, snuggling deeply into his side, as dark and blissful sleep swallowed him.

_B_R_E_A_K_

Shifting in her sleep, Naru usually wouldn't want to wake up. It was dark and safe and warm. But today was a different case. Today was a huge milestone in her life, and she wanted to get it started.

Her eyes snapped open to find out her vision was being blocked by a veil of sunny yellow hair. With a groan, Naru pushed herself off the couch and wiped the drool off her face with a scowl. Not the most graceful start, but a start none the less.

Kakashi was once again gone from the apartment, this time leaving a scrawled note on the table explaining that breakfast was in the fridge. Smiling, she skipped to the kitchen and heated up her food, plowing through the rice and vegetables.

Today was the day, the day she was an actual kunoichi starting her career of protecting the village like her brother, and nothing could ruin it. Her grin bloomed into an even larger one at the thought, and her feet took her to her bedroom, where she slipped on her usual garments.

However, this time, before she went to the entrance of their apartment to pick up her weapons and scrolls, she paused at her dresser. Sitting atop the dark wood was a navy blue band with a metal plate stitched into it. Engraved on the metal was a swirling insignia of a leaf, the symbol of her village that she'd be able to proudly wear.

Reverently caressing the cloth, Naruto's nimble hands lifted it off the dresser and wrapped it tightly around her waist. Brushing her fingers against the cool metal, she breathed in deeply, imagining that the air had a certain clarity now that in never had before. Strengthening herself for the adventures to come, Naru marched into the kitchen, grabbed an orange, and marched out her apartment after grabbing her scrolls and weapons pouch, both of which were hanging neatly beside the door.

She was the first to arrive at the clearing, bright eyed and excited. Tightening the hitai-ate, Naru strode over to the black stone in the center of the training field and sat down facing the waters of the nearby lake. Her orange was long gone, resting peacefully in her stomach and now her empty hands fiddled uselessly in her lap.

A rustle announced the arrival of Sasuke, who trudged over to a tree to lean on. His arrival didn't bring conversation, but rather and even more awkward silence between them.

"So..." Naru began, shifting uneasily. Silence wasn't her strong suit.

"Don't even start it Uzumaki," Sasuke growled. "It's too early for your idiocy."

Naruto's eye twitched violently. Nothing had changed since the academy, and she suspected that nothing would for a good long while.

Naruto decided to stay quiet, reigning in the furious screech bubbling in her chest. The Uchiha bastard wasn't worth it. Instead, she tapped away a silent tune on her thighs as her eyes shot lightning bolts at the ground. Another shuffling sound approached. Naruto's eyes darted to see a pineapple shaped head coming near. She narrowed her eyes dangerously.

Their eyes met for a short moment before the boy plopped down onto the grass to watch clouds. Naru sneered. Stupid, lazy ass, geniuses. How was she to survive on a team with these two with her.

She could see in the corner of her eyes that Sasuke looked a little confused at their exchange. He looked toward her curiously before she whipped her head downward.

Shikamaru stole another look at his only female teammate. His eyes were laced with confusion as they searched the obviously frustrated girl sitting by herself. There was something off about her and the way she acted. Uzumaki Naruto was lively and foolhardy, never listening to the teachers and always pulling pranks, laughing loudly when nothing was funny. Despite having an obviously outgoing personality, she didn't go out of her way to socialize, pretty much only talking when spoken to or yelling nonsense with Kiba. Shikamaru could vaguely recall the first day the teachers announced in-class sparring. The blonde spitfire cried, refusing to even touch any of the other kids. She had to be sent to the Hokage tower only to return later in the day with a scroll stating that she was exempt from practicing with the class to instead receive private tutelage. He completely ignored this snippet of info until the other day, when she was practically hyperventilating at the thought of waking Sasuke up.

But then there's the question: why doesn't she have these qualms with Kakashi?

Shikamaru flicked his gaze back to the cloudless sky when Naru's head snapped upwards. From his peripherals, Shikamaru saw Sasuke mimic the action.

"My my, troops. At least two of you were paying attention. Still, Shikamaru over there would be dead."

Kakashi finally decided to appear after an hour of antagonizing quiet. The adult dropped out of the trees, lazily posed and scanning his porn. Sasuke's shoulders drooped, loosing tension he would vehemently deny ever having, when Naru muttered angrily about his tardiness.

"And for that lapse of judgement," Kakashi said, addressing Shikamaru's lack of attention, "you're all going to run fifteen laps around the lake."

"What!?" Naruto screeched, frothing at the mouth. Her eyes screamed murder for the Nara who was moaning in distress on the ground.

"Get a move on, kiddos. We don't have all day!" their sensei chirped, shooing them off with his free hand.

Sasuke silently did as he was told, beginning at a slow jogging pace around the waters. Naruto soon followed grumpily, accidentally kicking the laziest of the three on her journey. She started off faster than the Uchiha. The two were halfway done with their first lap when Shikamaru finally gathered enough energy to stand and begin as well.

As soon as Shikamaru took his first step in circumventing the lake, Kakashi yelled, "Come on, you're shinobi aren't you? This is not running. I said run around the lake!"

The children picked up the pace, Kakashi lackadaisically telling them to go faster and faster until they were sprinting and wheezing, pushing chakra to their muscles to enhance their strength and lessen the strain on their legs. Eventually, they all stopped by their sensei, gasping in a struggle to capture air and vacuum it into their lungs. Naruto collapsed, Shikamaru fell clumsily forward onto his face, and even the prideful Uchiha was felled, leaning on one knee. He still had enough energy however to glare at Naruto, who had beaten him to the end of the laps by a wide margin.

They were all silent for a bit before Kakashi sighed, "Damn you pipsqueaks are slow. We haven't even gone through warm-ups yet and look at you!" With an innocently cheerful smile, he ordered, "I think we could use another ten, yeah? Without the chakra to your legs. Go!"

The trio sluggishly ran, lead by the angriest scream Konoha had ever heard spewing out of a blonde ninja's mouth.

**So there you are folks! :) Hope you liked it (let alone made it through this chapter... lol) and hope you'll review to give ideas, opinions, and critisisms!**

**Lastly! A shoutout to my new favs/followers! THANK YOU: River Nailo-Chaos, Glassstar93, Tempest Nightmoon, Nova Saber, tbroski46, Hebimaru, My-Broken-Destiny, antienoftheshadows, puppykiller9, ArinaSugarBaby, Ameliara, Thermelia, Rickblood, Lainblueraven, Yokata Misu Yosei, Silently Watches, Ducky the Insomniac Panda (do I WANT to know how you came up with that?! hahaha), Legionary Prime, JamerToTheRescue, and ShatteredTheHeavens! **

**And especially my reviewers from last chapter: Glassstar93, My-Broken-Destiny, SomeoneInterested (thanks again! ;D), christina. (you too! Thanks for another review), and Yuri-Hime-Chan (again as well to you!).**

**I need one more follower for 50, i think by the way ;) Love you guys! I'll update as soon as possiblehhhh!**


	11. To Tell or Not To Tell

**I'm sorry for the late update :( I've been having personal issues for a while and I've had to study up on colleges to help decide where I want to go, so I've been dutifully busy and annoyed and sad with everything I literally had five of these pages written for two months but couldn't force myself to finish, and I finally did tonight just for you guys 3 That's why the ending might seem rushed and...yuck... but yeah Dx I really need to think through my plot and decisions more, cuz its going to come back and bite me in the ass!**

**Either way! Hope you guys ejoy this chapter! :)**

*******EDIT: I changed the teams (other than Team 7 obviously) around a little to sensei who I think would better match the skills I'm thinking of giving the genin... so don't get confused over the ending if the sensei have different students! I'm switching the students in the first chaptered theyre mentioned in as well :)**

****Don't Own Naruto****

Kakashi released a frustrated sigh. What had happened? They passed his test flawlessly, albeit slightly unwillingly. So why was this happening?

In front of him were his three genin disciples: Sasuke, Shikamaru, and Naru. The three of them were attached along the length of a long shinobi rope with the objective to complete the task given to them while working out a method where their movement would no longer pull at each other. It was, in theory, a system that would mold all of them into a perfectly cohesive unit that wouldn't even have to consciously think to move in sync.

For the past two weeks, Kakashi had been attempting to teach his students the concept of teamwork. However, ever since the genin test, their compatibility had miraculously diminished into nonexistence. Right now, Shikamaru was in the middle. Much to all three of their protests, Kakashi had deemed it wise to pronounce the Nara as the team leader, being the strategist and most level-headed, therefore the regulator in this cesspool of crashing emotions, but watching this anarchy in front of him, the jounin was beginning to doubt his decision.

Sitting down, the Nara was practically sleeping even though it was only mid-day, with both his teammates pulling his torso each-which way via the connected rope. Naru was shouting something about how it would be faster to find the damned beast if they went via the woods while Sasuke was countering her argument saying that they should look around the lake first.

It honestly hurt the Hatake just to watch.

This was their fourth time on this particular mission, and they still fought again and again. They wouldn't get this many chances in a real battle, and none of them were good enough to survive without a team, despite what they may think. And obviously, they were all at least smart enough to realize this, since they grouped up to pass his annoying test. So why again were they this defunct again?

"Teme! We've never found that thing by the lake, so why would it be there today?"

"It's obviously smart enough to change its patterns, Fishcake. It could be there because we think it'll be in the woods like usual!"

"Who would even think with that logic, Uchiha?"

"Just 'cause you're not smart enough to come up with it doesn't mean others can't, Baka."

"Say that to my face, asshole, and you'll regret it!"

"As if I'd get that close to you. Your stupidity might be contagious."

"Oh you are so…!"

And now the blonde haired menace was charging at her teammate, dragging an annoyed Nara with her, begrudgingly awoken to keep himself from being caught in the middle.

It was times like these Kakashi wondered if Naru grew up at all when he was away. She obviously physically grew. She herself mentioned to him in a passing that she'd do speed training every morning and afternoon, and it wasn't hard to notice the effects, outrunning and outlasting Sasuke by margins. But Naru was still the childish, exasperating, twerp that he lived with for two and a half years before being put back on active duty.

"If you throw even one punch, you're all doing sprints," Kakashi called out cheerfully, pretending to read his smut in the trees. Fearfully, all three genin stared up at him, and he bathed in the feeling. "You're also doing sprints if you don't complete your mission in two hours. Maybe some pushups, too?" His visible eye squinted happily when the two troublemakers scrambled back into pleasantries in an attempt to appease his rising ire in their conduct. Shikamaru threw the man a half-hearted glare, too lazy to put his all into it.

Once again, Kakashi sighed.

"Alright. Sasuke, Naru's right. It doesn't have the intellect to think of going to the lake," Shikamaru yawned, picking himself up, "Let's go check the forest." Sasuke glowered at the boy, chin pointed skyward in defiance.

"Right. So, Sasuke… the lake it is," Naruto growled, storming off toward the water and dragging her two teammates behind her. One of them looked confused and a little amused, smirking as he followed the tiny girl clad in orange while the other seemed too lazy to care. However, if one looked close enough, there was visible annoyance and exasperation clouding his eyes.

The masked jounin in the trees rubbed at his temples, discouraged. Naruto and Sasuke were chronically butting heads, screaming obscenities at one another and mixing like rock and lightning. That is, until the slothful genius was put into the mix. Naru was the Uchiha's best friend when that happened, ganging up on the team leader. Something was inherently wrong with those three.

What went wrong?

_B_R_E_A_K_

Naru sighed weakly, breaths still bursting erratically from within her chest. The stinging burn in her lungs and legs were a welcome sensation, boasting of hard work and muscle toning. However, the glare set in Kashi-sensei's one visible eye sent her legs quivering with pure fear.

It had took them five hours—_five hours!_—to find the damned creature, cleaning itself under the balcony of a large oak tree. Following Sasuke's obviously flawed logic in her opinion, her and her team had spent barely twenty minutes inspecting the lake before breaking out into a fight again, invariably starting with her insulting Sasuke's ridiculous duck-butt hair and ending with Kakashi adding more workouts to their possible punishment. This eventually led to a failed search around the lake and a journey into the wooded area of the training grounds. And honestly, Naru never wanted to mention the events of that journey ever again. All that mattered was that eventually they found it, returned it, and ran and ran and ran and ran and, oh wait, what was that? Ran.

"I want another three laps," demanded Kakashi in his angriest voice. "No team has ever taken _three_ hours, let alone _five,_ to catch Tora!"

Naru stumbled forward, her legs initially refusing to move before lethargically starting up. Sasuke proudly fumbled forward as well, his winces the only tell of his soreness. The Uzumaki girl was already half way around the lake when Shikamaru trudged sadly after them.

"No team has ever had to use a lethal trap to catch Tora either!" he roared after them, voice carrying on the wind.

Despite the scorching heat scratching her throat, Naru mumbled to no one, "The damn thing deserved everything it got…" She yelped when a whistling shuriken scratched the bridge of her nose. A panicked glance to the fuming brother figure, the blonde subconsciously sped up.

The three laps, which would normally have taken them only six or seven minutes, ended up lasting a good twenty. By the end, Naruto was dry heaving in an attempt to puke up the air drowning in her throat and helplessly failing. The ever haughty Uchiha refused to sit on the ground and instead leaned heavily on his knees, gasping for breath. The same couldn't be said about Shikamaru, collapsed on the ground and dazed.

"You know, you guys should walk after running so your legs don't cramp up," Kakashi chided with frustration, scratching the back of his head. Sure he was furious about their horrible teamwork, but gazing at the midgets in front of him, gasping for dear life, he began to think that maybe he had worked them a little too hard today. They were practically unconscious, yet they still had… Kakashi paused a moment to think. Was it an hour left of their training session?

"Alright, we'll end it here today." Naruto let out a breathless _whoop!_ before crumpling to the grass face first. Kakashi had the urge to rush to her side and pick her up and carry her home and baby her until she felt like the little girl she was, but he restrained himself. She was a ninja now, and while he was her sensei, Kakashi couldn't coddle the girl anymore. He clenched his fist, grinding his teeth, and walked away while calling back to them, "If you don't change your attitudes by tomorrow, it'll only get worse. Until you finally get along, conditioning is the only thing any of you will be doing!" Then he disappeared in a burst of leaves.

Naru grumbled into the dirt, officially hating her older brother. Her lungs felt almost as shredded as her muscles, and she was positive that she wouldn't be able to move on her own any time soon.

It was all that stupid Nara's fault. They were doing great that first day, and even Sasuke had agreed to work with them. He just had to be just a jackass, that idiot. And then Kashi-nii had the nerve to appoint him team leader! As if she'd just sit and wag her tail like a whipped puppy for that ass!

With a sigh, Naru just snuggled into the grass, resigning herself to sleeping in the wilderness. Her eyes just closed when…

An arm wrapped around her waist, lifting her up with a grunt.

Panic. Gut-wrenching panic. With a piercing shriek, Naru twisted away, harshly falling to the ground. Her muscles screamed at her and her skin begged her not to, but she pushed off the ground and stood in a defensive position.

Shocked, Sasuke stood there with an open mouth and his arm still reaching out. Behind him sat an awake Shikamaru with a furrowed brow.

"Geez Uzumaki, scared much?"

The blonde snarled lightly in the boy's direction, who quickly retracted his arm to his side. "Why are you guys staring at me like that?"

Sasuke's arm twitched at the question and sent a pointed look at the genius behind him.

"We need to-"

"No."

"Naruto. I don't why you're mad at me but-"

"I said no, Nara."

Shikamaru glared at the messy blonde and she glared right back.

Sasuke butted in, "Kami you two are terrible. You heard Kakashi. We need to work together if we're going to stay alive through his so-called training."

Naruto's eyes slid over to Sasuke's, a skeptic glint in them. "That's sweet coming from you, Uchiha."

With a 'hn,' the boy continued, "I don't like you guys much, in fact I'm pretty sure I hate you both, but if I want to get any new jutsu, we need to at least pretend we get along." Naru opened her mouth to protest, Sasuke went on without missing a beat. "Don't even try it. I don't know what's wrong with you two, but I'm amazed to say it's not me who refuses to be a team right now. I recognize that Kakashi isn't bluffing and that you two weren't completely useless in battle. I was thinking about cooperating until I was free of this stupid team thing, but instead you two just yell at each other."

Had she just heard right? Did Uchiha Sasuke, the most stubbornly prideful and arrogant Uchiha Sasuke, actually tell them to stop fighting and work together as a team? And was Shikamaru actually pouting behind him?

Naruto loosened her posture, putting her hands on her hips and leaning forward. "I can't trust a team leader who isn't willing to get to know his team, Sasuke."

"And I can't get to know my team if they don't trust me, Naru," Shikamaru bit back.

Naruto bristled, her eyes widening with anger and pain. The glassy-eyed glare sitting upon her face was oddly discomfiting.

The boy was frustrated. He thought he knew the two people he had been teamed with. Sasuke was the cold genius, the kid who refused to get close to anyone or work with anyone. He didn't waste time with others, focused narrowly on the sole goal of being the best and pushing others to the dirt to get there. The most social aspect of his conversation was his sneer. Shikamaru had hypothesized that he'd be the one ruining team chemistry, insulting the others and demanding their sensei to focus solely on him, not attempting to patch them back together.

And Uzumaki Naru, the enigma of their academy class. She had also seemed to be the easygoing one, if not easily riled. While talented, the girl was clumsy and too hot-headed to be considered great at her age. Shikamaru was sure that it would be Naru to keep trying to bring them all together and be friends with an eternal energy, but instead the girl was moody, unpredictable, and volatile. Not only that, but for some reason she seemed afraid of contact from everyone but their sensei.

Obviously, any hypothesis he came up with was sure to be false with these new developments, and he wouldn't be able to calculate new ones if Naru was going to continue to keep such obvious secrets. Shikamaru might be lazy, but he hated to be unknowledgeable about something. He liked numbers and being able to put people into equations to come up with a predictable output.

But once again, Shikamaru belatedly realized he had miscalculated and made the girl angry. He and Sasuke watched silently as Naru stormed off, muscles taunt with what he presumed as rage. With a sigh, Shikamaru got up and began to slouch away, resigning himself for another day of hell tomorrow. He almost missed Sasuke gruffly saying, "Just give it another day."

_B_R_E_A_K_

Her feet followed a fixed pattern, a little staccato of light beats. She whispered the breathy counts underneath her breath, face down to watch. Naru's brows were furrowed together in deep thought.

She couldn't tell them about her, could she? It was a village secret, it was _her_ secret, and it was something she didn't want to share with anyone. But Shikamaru said he needed her to trust him for their unit to work. She didn't trust him though. How could she? Except for a very select few, and Naru meant very select, nobody thought… She was…

Naru nibbled her lip nervously and shifted her eyes to the right. But they were her team, and Kashi always told her that if you couldn't trust your team, you couldn't trust anyone. And at the very least, she could trust Kakashi's word.

What could she do in this situation? Bad blood between teammates lead to bad things, but Shikamaru had rubbed a festering wound with salt and hadn't even batted an eyelash. She couldn't just let that go, could she?

Subconsciously, she strode through the alleys and less-populated streets of Konoha. She couldn't tell where her sore legs were going, but she wasn't going to stop them any time soon. She was so caught up in thought that she never noticed the sun had long ago set and that she had actually spent a over an hour asleep in the training ground.

"One. Two. Three. Four…One…Two…"

The orange-clad ninja counted her steps until she reached her empty apartment and, with a sigh, dreamlessly slept on the messy couch waiting for her brother.

_B_R_E_A_K_

Kakashi's lone eye bore straight ahead, unflinching despite the rowdy bar around him. He felt incredibly stupid, sitting there unmoving, his eye painfully watering (not that he'd let anyone notice his discomfort), but just call him neurotic. Seconds ticked by, minutes sashayed across time. Damn it was getting hard not to blink.

"Hey, Kurenai! Over here!" Asuma called from next to him, waving the bodacious woman over. Her ruby eyes lit up when she spotted them, her hips swinging as she walked over. Kakashi didn't move his eyes an inch, still focused ahead of him.

Kurenai, dressed in her usual white shinobi attire, was carrying a light blue drink with her. She gaily approached their table, smily softly at him and the other occupiers of their booth.

"Hatake-san? Gai-san? What are you doing?" Kakashi wanted to answer the woman's question, but he was too focused on keeping his eye open.

"Oh, they're just up to their silly competitions again," Asuma casually answered. Ugh, it was beginning to water uncomfortably.

"What is it this time then?" the woman sighed. Men and their silly ritualistic rivalries, she thought.

"Staring contest." Kakashi just couldn't understand how Gai hadn't blinked yet! His eyes, they were huge! A bird should have flied into them already or something!

"Staring conte-?"

Suddenly, Kakashi's hand flashed out from next to him, poking the newly appointed jounin sensei in the stomach. With a shriek, Yuuhi Kurenai visibly jumped, accidently spilling her alcohol all over a man clad in a green skintight suit that left very little to the imagination.

"Gah! My youthful jumpsuit!" Maito Gai broke eye contact with his rival to sputter over the liquor on his clothes. Kakashi smiled smugly, leaning back in his seat and turning his eye back to his Icha Icha. Kakashi thirty-two, Gai thirty.

"Oh Gai-san, I'm so sorry-!"

"Kakashi! That was very unyouthful, using a lady like that!"

The white haired genius rolled his eyes in disinterest as Asuma ushered the female into her seat, assuring her that the bushy-browed jounin wouldn't truly care.

"I don't know what you're talking about, Gai-san," Kakashi murmured from behind his book. Swiftly, the man took a swig of his sake behind its pages.

"Your hip attitude again, Kakashi!? Alright, I accept defeat this time, eternal rival, but next time I will win! And if I lose, I'll run five hundred laps around Konoha! And if I don't, I'll do one thousand pushups while attached vertically to the cliffs! And if I can't do that, then I'll-!"

"Hn…"

"Your hipness kills me!" Gai cried out with a shiny smile. "But excuse me for tonight, my youthful friends! May your flames of youth burn bright!" And with that, the eccentric man bolted from the bar.

Kurenai stared awkwardly after him, sipping out of the drink Asuma offered her.

"Don't mind him, Yuuhi-san. He's always like that," Kakashi told her, politely placing his book into his kunai pouch.

"Yeah Kurenai, don't let his attitude bother you. He's a great ninja and even better…person?" Asuma chuckled lightly, fiddling with a cigarette in his hands. A glare from the lone female stopped him.

"So," she began, flipping her hair over her shoulder, "how are your genin doing? I'm pretty sure Kiba and Ino are on the verge of maiming each other, leaving poor Hinata at a loss as to what to do, but their skills have improved immensely. They each have their own issues to work out outside of their shinobi skills, but I'm still very proud of their progress!"

Asuma smiled tiredly, taking a swig of beer. "Well… my team is doing fine, though Sakura is having a few issues coming to terms with the…habits of her two teammates. Still, they're all doing well in their training and completing all missions, though if they just learned to work past their differences they'd be a great team." Asuma twiddled with his cancer stick again for a moment. "They're all very dedicated," he claimed.

"What about Team Seven, Hatake-san?" It was an innocent enough question, coming from the other two jounin-sensei, but Kakashi still felt a little guarded when answering. What would he say? That they seemed to be doing great until all of a sudden everything went to shit and that he, their sensei, couldn't get them back on track? He sighed.

"They're exactly as expected" he began, his voice drawling out of his mouth like the smoke clogging the bar. "There's always room for improvement, but these kids are completely resistant to the idea of teamwork at the moment. It's simply amazing." The man clumsily took another sip of alcohol.

"Really now, Kakashi? I'd assume that your group would be quite the handful, especially with Uzumaki and Uchiha Sasuke butting heads," Asuma stated, warily watching his comrade, "but to be completely reluctant?"

Not letting a flinch through his guard, the silver haired man replied, "Why did I ever take on a team in the first place? They're either too prideful to admit weakness or too complacent with their skills!" It was the closest Kakashi would ever come to complaining

"Well that's worrying," Kurenai added. "Uchiha-kun especially was very talented…" She didn't notice the slight narrowing of Kakashi's eyes and the rumble starting in his chest.

Asuma quickly intervened. "If your team is having that many problems, perhaps I have a solution Kakashi. Maybe we should have a spar? A three-way battle among our genin. If Team Seven is as you say, then the sight of other, healthy teams might just do the trick!"

Blinking owlishly, Kakashi digested the idea in his head. Naruto and Sasuke wouldn't be able to beat either team on their own, and they could probably bully Shikamaru into working with them again… Perhaps it would work?

"You got yourself a deal, Sarutobi."

**So there it is, duckies! :) I hope you lookd forward to the next chapter, because it's going to be difficult for me... alot of fighting probably sooooo ick :( if you have any ideas for fighting styles for the kids or anything else message me! I need inspiration! xD hahaha**

**Special thanks to my new followers/favers!: DarkRealmFox (thank you so much for ALL you favs and follows! 3), Flirty-Neko, senkai, Black Phoenix 7777, Crossing-the-Rubicon, byebe360, Crazydoglover, Demon MasterX, Femnaruxsasulover (I'm warning you specifically, this won't be naruxsasu :( sorry), Clarindas, imagine-me, skepsis-66, , KING COBRA THE MASTER MIND, nandro, Apollo27, OldMasterSaru, IceFlame55, pinkiceangelbaby, Zero0000000, and Harumi-Hime**

**And SPECIAL THANKS TO REVIEWERS! :DDD : My-broken-destiny (I'm so sorry about lateness :( especially since I promised a quick update! Don't be mad!), cristina. , and Yuri-Hime-Chan**

**you three ar special to me because you always seem to review (slash have reviewed more than once in this short story...) thank you!**

**Review if you so wish, but at least enjoy the story!**


	12. Therapuetic Nonsense

**So I had this nice long spiel at the beginning of the chapter and about Game of Thrones and about how I'm going to college in NY, but my computer shut down and deleted it. And I'm too angry and annoyed to try and retype it. Cuz it took like... 20 minutes and then an hour for my thank yous at the end THAT I NOW HAVE TO REDO! udtghfpiauehjrg;foijea ugh. Thanks for reading this though, guys :)**

***Don't Own Naruto***

_It was red._

_It was always red._

_That color gave her chills. Made her want to cry. But as soon as she whimpered, the chaotically parading beast would turn its scarlet eyes on her. And its blood-stained teeth would appear in a manic smile. She dare not whimper._

_Naru hugged her pink tinged skin to herself, body curiously covered in red bandages hanging loosely off her arms and shoulders. Always such a deep, unexplainable red. Even when she closed her eyes, the color bled through to her pupils._

_Her eyelids would never be able to halt the images that perforated the scene. How could you close your eyes to your own dreams, your mind? The red death was all about her, encircling with grotesque carnage the fox demon made sure she lived through, tinged with it's sick enjoyment of tearing into flesh. Enjoyment she didn't share, yet it pulsed darkly through her veins all the same._

_She whimpered._

_And there it was, the sickly vermillion gaze. Malignant in all aspects. Its smile spread wide in a violent power ploy. In her dreams, those knife-like canines were all too real of a threat._

_The demon strode towards her, it's fanning nine tails swishing in and out of the moon's way. Deep maroon to vibrant sinister red. She could see the remnants of a shinobi in its maw, an arm settled between two canines like a bloodied toothpick._

_She whimpered again, taking a step back fearfully._

_The beast's grin was widening in unsurpassed glee when all of a sudden, the thing growled and bared its teeth threateningly._

_"_**Kazia.**_" The thing's voice thrummed deep inside Naru's limbs. It was the first time she'd heard it talk. Its gigantic eye focused in her direction, almost as if staring straight through her._

_"__N-Naru," she faltered when it's pupil dilated and hated herself for it. She had to be brave. She was in control. It was her mind. "I don't know what a k-kazia is, b-but I'm Nar-Naruto."_

_"_**Not you, you hairless monkey. You're insignificance is insignificant right now**_."_

_Naru flinched. She didn't understand. Whenever she visited this scene—the scene where the demon fox trampled her beloved home town—it was only her, the Kyuubi, and the faceless shinobi the demon constantly devoured in hot anger. All the shinobi with silent screams and pleas, only to be crushed in between the Kyuubi's teeth. Her teeth. She could feel herself shaking and trembling with fear._

_When she opened her mouth to ask who, if not herself, was Kazia, lithe arms slithered around her shoulders, clasping Naru's mouth shut with tanned hands._

_Naru could barely spy maroon silk before a silky voice murmured in her ear, "Imouto, this here is a conversation for grown-ups. I think it's best you let us talk…" Before Naruto could snake her vision around to see the speaker, the voice faded away with the crimson world into black nothingness._

"Mmm…" Naru mumbled painfully, small droplets of tears in her pillow. She rolled over onto her back and stared at the ceiling. As always, the helpless feeling settled deep in the pit of her stomach.

Her eyes slid over to the window to see morning sunlight.

With a groan that sounded suspiciously like a whimper, Naru's hand stole the penguin hat from her head, throwing it to the ground. She slipped clumsily from her bed, covers pooling at her feet and tripping her up so that she almost fell face first onto the floor. Kakashi must have tucked her in after coming back home last night.

Gathering herself back up, her feet padded their way to the bathroom where she continued on to brush her teeth. She didn't have to look into the mirror to tell that her skin was a placid white, pale from terror. She was still shivering from her nightmare.

She shook it off the best she could. Shinobi don't show weakness.

Stripping her body of Kakashi's oversized t-shirt she used as a nightgown, Naru stepped into the shower and washed herself.

Entranced, Naru stared at the healthily tanned skin of her arm, sun-kissed from training outside all year. She lifted her arms up, phantom traces of pink left in her mind, and encased her mouth with her fingers. Eyes closed, Naru breathed in the steam clogged air. "Imouto, this here is a conversation for grown-ups…"

Why had that voice seemed so familiar to her? Naru shivered unconsciously. Anything to do with that beast was bad news. It all made her weak and lost, hopeless and terrified. Kazia.

Releasing her mouth from her finger's embrace, the girl shampooed her hair and turned off the waters. She wrapped the towel snuggly around her chest to head back to her room to get dressed. Twisting the doorknob, Naru pushed the door to her room open.

Her eyes widened in panic. Her skin warmly prickled.

A flash of red hair and a self-satisfied smirk greeted her from in front of the window. A chiming giggle. An aura of sickening arrogance.

And the Naru blinked and the figure was gone like a figment of her imagination. Hell, for all Naruto knew, the person was. Nobody she was aquainted with had the prowess to get passed Kakashi's multitude of traps and seals. She was safe. The steam was making illusions in the air.

Still, the jinchuuriki's erratic heartbeat refused to slow and she stood stock still for several minutes, staring at the window expecting something else to appear. Maybe a dancing fox this time. She shuddered, hugging her arms tightly around herself for a moment. Again Naru closed her eyes only to open them to nothing eccentric or out of place.

"Come on Naru, you're not losing your mind or anything..." the girl chuckled nervously, still shaken from her dream. Cautiously keeping an eye on the window, Naru continued with her morning routine with an attempt to quell her nightmare's after effects.

When the blonde Hatake-Uzumaki child made her way into the kitchen, her chosen ninja uniform was hugging her non-existent figure, her headband now tied tightly around her thigh this time instead of her waist (it had interfered with her scrolls), and her hair was neatly parted far on the right as always. Nothing better to forget your worries like dressing up as a badass ninja chick.

Grabbing an orange off the counter, Naru spotted a small scroll sitting next to the refrigerator.

Kakashi-nii, the jerk, was apparently too good to spend time with her ever and had degraded into leaving her notes. It would be like he was still on a mission if not for seeing him at training everyday. Naruto scoffed angrily. Men: bastards all of them.

Grabbing and unrolling the paper, it read:

_Dear Naru,_

_Team meeting has been moved to training ground eighteen at nine for today. Do not be late. That doesn't mean you can waste your morning! Go out to eat or something with the team, get to know them and eat a good breakfast, too, would you? You're way too light for a ninja your age, even if you're a girl._

Naru stared at the note in her thin hands, scoffing. "Don't be late? How about you take your own advice, Kashi…" she grumbled, crumpling up the note and throwing it into the trash by the counter. She wasn't exactly looking forward to seeing those two again; she was actually hoping to take advantage of her brother's tardiness to sleep in late, think things through, and just mosey on about. Basically ignoring the two for as long as possible.

And that's what she'd be doing, despite her brother's request. She could understand the need to get along with her teammates, but Naru still couldn't find it in herself to simply forgive the oblivious bastard. He was supposed to be a genius, but he couldn't even understand something as simple as this? And Sasuke was just a straight up ass to both of them.

A pitiful growl whispered through her as she tore into her orange, leaving nothing but sticky fingers and scraps of orange peel on the floor. This would be her breakfast and that would be all she ate! It's not like Kashi was around to scold her for only eating an orange or anything. Naru eyed the bowl of oranges on the counter.

Grumbling, she grabbed another two, one in her hand and another in her utility pouch, before heading out the door.

Not willing to take any chances today with her frayed nerves, Naru decided to take the meandering alleyways instead of the main streets. It was a Sunday, so many civilians would be up and about doing chores or visiting each other, a crowd Naru would rather avoid. Especially with her condition being so difficult today, her skin warm and itching for contact even without the temptation of closeness. It didn't help that she was so on edge, imagining little red splotches every five seconds or so hidden in her peripherals. Nor did it help that her agitation over her team's quarrels was finally getting to her as well.

Instead of dwelling on the upcoming issue of the day—she had until noon before she had to deal with that, damnit!—Naru somberly pondered her dream again. When she was younger, before she met Kakashi, the sight of the rampaging demon was common during sleep, its large maws decisively tearing into her flesh before Naru would wake up, screaming. The visions steadily dwindled with the company of her brother and her preoccupation with their mirage of a family, but it was a year ago that they began to frequent her again.

After the Hokage called her in for the Confession.

It was a little past her eleventh birthday and only a couple weeks before Kakashi would leave without a trace on his new mission when Naru was requested by the Hokage to tell her the truth of her heritage: the Kyuubi was sealed within her.

Apparently Kakashi demanded that she know the truth of the matter so that she could cope with it while still young, but she didn't exactly "cope" with the new information. That is, unless coping involves screaming, crying, refusal, self-hatred, distrust, and several other traumas being brought up within the span of fourteen days or so. It was then that the fox once again devoured her dreams and her in proxy within them. Naru could practically hear the laughing triumph in the beast's head as it stared her down and ate away her soul in her sleep, and eventually, instead of being eaten she would merge with its aura, becoming the Kyuubi itself.

Naru shivered in the phantom wind of Konoha, whispering quietly to herself, "You aren't the demon, Naru. You are Naru, my dear little sister. You will always be my dear little sister." The words Kakashi imparted unto her before leaving two days later. The blonde looked unseeing at the sun, remembering her rehabilitation via those words, with a distracted smile. He was her family.

Still, even in her worst nightmares with the Kyuubi, she had never heard it talk. And the fact that another being—she couldn't be sure whether it was human or not, one could never tell when it came to the Kyuubi—was present as well could be potentially worrying.

Hell, it could probably all be chalked off to the horrid amount of stress her whole teammate situation was giving her. If she didnt have to crazy ass furball inside her, she'd most definitely have an ulcer! And now, thanks to the two temes on her team, she was experiencing those traumatizing dreams in full force, with a new twist to torture her.

Still...should she mention it to Kakashi? He always had decent advice, but her brother always took it too far, coddling her and overwhelming her. Besides, she was a ninja now! A grownup going on badass missions for her village and officially on her way to Hokage-dom! She wouldn't always be able to rely on others, and it was about time to begin relying on her own strength.

Naru faltered in her step for a second; a figure had swept through her peripherals like a phantom. Red hair, tantalizing smile. A laugh tore through the air as a bell, stiffening Naru's shoulders. Only, when she turned her head in the right direction, the being was gone, disappeared.

This time, Naru couldn't suppress the fear coursing through her veins in familiarity with the tickle.

"Nope!" Naru yelled at herself, internally refusing to give into her thoughts. She just wanted a peaceful walk. A nice quaint walk where she didn't have to think or talk or be stalked by crazy red people or-

The faintest of prickling warned her just before she met contact.

"Oh, hello there Naru-kun. You should really pay more attention to where you're going." The unsaid 'especially with that condition of yours' hung in the air for a few seconds before Naru smiled lightly in sadness. Of course Fate loved picking on her too much to let her have a passive morning.

"Sorry Yamanaka-san. You're simply harder for it to detect and I wasn't exactly looking ahead of myself," Naru admitted, taking a step back from the Yamanaka clan head. As usual, his platinum blonde hair was up in the same ponytail she remembered in her youth. The smile was still in place, too. Warm and understanding.

Inoichi laughed delicately, ruffling the young girl's hair familiarly. "I'll take your body not seeing me as a threat like it's a compliment, then," he chuckled, pale blue eyes twinkling. "As it is, only the Hokage and Kakashi-san have been able to ward it off completely, am I right?"

Naru nodded solemnly, causing the clan head to frown. The girl definitely looked prettier when she smiled brightly, not sulking about the backways of Konoha. She was impatiently fidgeting and refusing to look him in the eyes, something very odd with her habits. She didn't fill the silence with her usual bubbly voice either.

"Is something wrong, Naru? You're not as energetic as usual, and the guys like it when girls are energetic, not when they're all mopey."

If Naru had a chance to shake off his psychological inquiry before, it quickly disappeared with the flinch in response to that question. She began to sweat uncomfortably under his hard scrutiny.

Opening her mouth and closing it stupidly a few times, Naru could only bleat out a hushed "Fine, just tired." A pathetic excuse, she knew, but her creative mind just seemed to be lacking its usual oomph in her thought process. Inoichi raised a thin and regal eyebrow.

"Well, I'm on my way for my usual check up, if you'd like to walk with me." It wasn't an invitation, but an order, and Naruto knew it.

Once again, her answer was a meek nod as the duo trotted off in the direction of the dreaded hospital. The quiet between them, while far from tranquil, was something Naru was glad for. She didn't want to think about anything meaningful right now. She just wanted to clear her mind.

"So are you going to tell me what's wrong or make me use my Shinten Shinryaku (*mind invasion*)?"

The man could only laugh at the murderous expression the pixie girl was giving him, her eyebrows scrunched angrily and mouth scowling deeply. She had every right to be defensive. In her younger days, the forceful invasion of his will on her was a common occurrence when she was being difficult. It didn't help that Yamanaka clan techniques were particularly uncomfortable.

"You wouldn't."

"But wouldn't I?"

"You can't?"

"I'm still in charge of your mental health Naru, I can get away with…" Inoichi paused dramatically with a mischievous glint in his eye, "anything." He chortled at the new expression on the Uzumaki girl's face: scandalized. The poor girl was way too easy to read for a ninja like him. Or a ninja like anyone, really.

"That is so not fair! Don't I have any rights?"

"Absolutely none. So spill it," Inoichi said. Luckily, the sunny blonde beside him wasn't sulking anymore, her spunk in full force if her stink eye had anything to say about it.

She didn't want to go back into counseling three days a week though, a repercussion she would definitely face if she revealed her dream, teammate driven or not. Her stupid brother and the Hokage were too overprotective to allow her sleep patterns to go without scrutiny after admitting to the new change.

Hesitating for a moment, she grumbled reluctantly, "Fine." Of course she couldn't put this stupid spat out of her life long enough for one nice walk either. Of course. "It's my team. They're being stupid." It's not like she lied; she was having team issues and they were getting on her nerves more than she'd like to admit, even giving her stress-induced nightmares and hallucinations.

Once again, the Yamanaka raised a brow as they turned right to stay on track. "Stupid you say? How so?"

With a frustrated growl, Naru tried to begin phrasing a sentence only to fail. She bit her lip in annoyance, opened her mouth, and nothing came out. Her jaws closed with a clack. Inoichi watched her mental fight amusedly. She really was too easy to read.

"They don't understand," Naru finally said, kicking at the dirt while they strode on. Usually they would have been at the hospital already, but the sly grownup had directed them the long way, allowing more time to talk and less people to run into. Stupid adults thinking stupid things through.

"And what is it they don't understand, Naru?" His voice was softer now, gentler. It was his "therapist" voice, as Naru dubbed it years ago.

She stole a glance at his inquisitive gaze. A pause, then, "…Everything."

The hospital began to loom closer.

"Naruto…they can't understand if you don't let them understand." The young girl flinched for what seemed like the hundredth time that day.

"But-!"

"Besides," the man interrupted with a penetrating gaze, "they might understand more than you think, or at least be more willing to understand than you think." Naru fell silent.

The street they were on grew busier and busier the further they walked, gradually agitating Naru's skin to the point of slight burning in correspondence to her wavering emotions, but she stuck to the Yamanaka clan leader, feeling the need to see their conversation through. He more than deserved that respect.

Inoichi stopped in front of the solid white doors of the hospital, peering through the small windows in them before bending down to Naru's level, her face pouting in contemplation.

Placing both hands on either of her shoulders, Inoichi gently stated, "Shikamaru isn't a bad kid, Naru, and Sasuke is just hurt. You need to trust them and give them your strength if you want to survive in this world as a ninja. If you can't do that then…" He searched her gaze, looking for any sign of obstinacy, but her look only held that startling openness of hers. The man smiled contently. "Well, you'll figure it out, kiddo."

With these words, the platinum blonde stood up, fingering his earring, and left the confused child in preference of the hospital she had unwittingly sent him to due to her ignorance in younger years. Was Kakashi's check up today as well? Was that why he had to change their usual meeting time?

Naru stood there for several minutes, staring at her trembling hands. Why was it always her? She could only wonder what kind of mutation the Kyuubi had given her that could result in this curse. She wasn't fit to be around other people, to be in such close proximity to them all. She just just cover herself up and allow the council to hoard her in their jails, away from people. She didn't even deserve to be on a team. She was too dangerous for that.

Her head bowed, she whispered, "I'll always be his dear little sister. I'll always be Naru." A deep breath. A clench of her fists. The girl steeled herself, clamping down hard on the writhing of her skin. "I am Uzumaki Naruto," she stated louder, a wavering smirk settling on her face. "And I never give up, believe it."

And with a quick glance to the sky to glimpse the time, Naru's jaw dropped and her previous moping was entirely forgotten. "Oh shit!" she screamed, before bolting off towards training ground eighteen, frightening many a passerby.

She was going to be late again.

_B_R_E_A_K_

"Teme, lazy ass!" Naru screeched, coming to a halt on the edge of the clearing. Her hands were planted on her knees as she panted for breath. Her face was red from exertion and wind burn, having had run there in an attempt to be on time. Of course, it was purely futile as an hour and half had passed since the designated meeting time.

"Seriously, for someone so obsessed with punctuality, you're late a lot of the time, Naru." Naru's head whipped up so fast it cracked painfully, causing a quick wince.

"Dogbreath?"

Kiba had the decency not to growl at the old nickname, instead sporting a wolfish smile. Akamaru barked in greeting as well, tail wagging.

"Don't even get me started on dogbreath, Naru. You don't have to deal with it every day," came a whine from the feral boy's left. With a grandiose flick of her wrist, Ino's long hair flew behind her shoulder. Leaning one palm on her thigh and the other on her hip, Ino leaned towards her fellow blonde saying, "I go home smelling of dog sweat everyday thanks to this mongrel!"

Kiba growled, "Maybe if you actually worked hard you'd smell of your own perfumed sweat, Ino!" With a screech, Ino walked straight up in the Inuzuka's face and the two began to argue vehemently.

"U-u-umm… Kiba… Th-that's not very n-nice… I-I'm sure Ino tries h-her b-b-best…" Hinata twittered, pushing her fingers nervously together. Naru pulled her attention from the squabbling drama queen and dog boy to assess the Hyuuga heiress. Her cheeks were scarlet from speaking out loud and embarrassment, though it was obvious the other two didn't listen to her.

Naru chuckled, scratching the back of her neck in nervousness.

"Inopig? As if! I bet she just sits there and uses her big fat mouth to yell at you all!"

That new, screeching voice made Naru jump and Ino's eyes turn ablaze.

"Billboard Brow!"

"Inopig!"

"Ugly!"

"Fat shrew!"

"You behemoth of a-!"

"Sakura, it would be best if you didn't answer," Shino quietly butted in, making Sakura scowl. "Why you might ask? Because insulting a fellow ninja is improper and-"

And Shino was promptly ignored as the two girls spit like cats fighting over the last bite of fish. Chouji, sitting next to the bug obsessed ninja, chuckled nervously when Shino's cheek obviously twitched in annoyance, even underneath his high collar.

The lone female of Team Seven was severely confused. Why were Teams Eight and Ten at her training ground? And where was her team?

"Umm, I hate to interrupt your…" Naru paused, "conversation, but do you know where the Teme and Lazy ass are? This is Training Ground Eighteen right?"

"How dare you call Sasuke-kun 'teme' you bitch!" Ino and Sakura screamed at the same time. Naru and the boys around her sweatdropped.

"This is Training Ground Eighteen-munch-Naru." Chouji explained, turning away from the fighting fangirls. "And as for Shikamaru and Sasuke-munch-I have no idea-munch-where they are exactly," he answered from chomping lips.

Naruto growled, angrily flopping to the forest floor with closed eyes. And here she thought she was late, only to find out that her team hadn't even arrived yet and instead to be surrounded by squabbling banshees, howling wolf boys, feasting Akimichis and just a bunch of skin temptations. Today was seriously not her day.

Snakes began to writhe under her skin.

"I suggest not getting so close, Sarutobi-san," Naruto muttered, still muddled in her annoyance. Training Ground Eighteen was large enough and thick enough to keep the winds from penetrating, and so the air around her face remained uncomfortably stagnant. It was as if her exhaled vreath squatted on her face heavily with the day's heat. Huffing in an attempt to clear her breathing space, she opened her eyes to spy an amused looking Sarutobi Asuma, cigarette and all. It took Naru only a moment to realize the bickering between Sakura and Ino had stopped, Team Eight's sensei—Yuuhi Kurenai, if she recalled correctly—holding them apart.

"You have quite the sixth sense there, Uzumaki," Asuma observed amused. He wasn't particularly surprised to find that Kakashi's kids were all going to be varying degrees of late. The Sarutobi figured that he'd simply told Team Seven the time was at noon or something, if not only to ruffle the Sarutobi's feathers a bit.

"If that's supposed to be a joke Sarutobi-sensei, I'm afraid to tell you that I don't find it very funny," Naru answered, popping her shoulders in a stretch. "What time is it anyway?" She rolled out her arms.

"Oh, it's about ten-thirty now, Uzumaki-kun!" called out the red-eyed sensei of Team Eight. She flashed a beautiful smile that made Naru blush in self-awareness.

"Thanks..." she mumbled, standing.

Naru belatedly noticed that now the two sensei were present, the genin teams grouped up with their respective leaders. Ino was placed strategically far from Sakura, on the left of Kurenai. Hinata was lined on Kurenai's right, fiddling nervously as her sensei placed a reassuring hand in her shoulder. Kiba and his mutt were next to the Hyuuga heiress, the cockiest smile engraved into his face. "You are so going down, Naruto," he declared with a yip of agreement from Akamaru.

"As if you'll be able to beat Team Seven, mutt!" screeched Sakura from the clearings other side. Naru just noticed the haphazard grouping of Team Ten, the pinkette standing point in front of a sheepish Asuma who was smoking nervously. The other two members of the team waited patiently behind their sensei, nervous. "No one can beat Sasuke's team!"

Naru stared at the girl pathetically.

"Um, Sakura, I'm pretty sure you're supposed to say that we're going to win," Chouji chuckled, shoving another handful of chips into his mouth. Sakura whipped around to give him a burning glare, causing Asuma to sigh tiredly.

Naru wanted to laugh at their dilemma, but she had more pressing matters. "Win what, exactly?"

Everyone's head turned to her, incredulous.

"Geez Baka, you never pay attention, do you! You're sensei told you that the passing genin teams were going to have a sparring match today!" That was Ino, yelling at her with an exasperated expression, like she ended up babysitting a demanding five year old.

Naru gave the Yamanaka the blankest stare possible, secretly wondering how Yamanaka-san raised her like this. She ignored Ino's answer to her question, instead saying, "Oh, they actually passed your fat ass? Congratulations then."

Ino's pale face turned a fiery red with anger as Kiba howled in laughter and Sakura snickered.

Asuma quickly intervened, "Kakashi didn't even tell you about this, did he?" He puffed out a cloud of smoke. "Even when this is a favor for him..."

"Maybe he should be a better sensei before trying to fix his team," scowled Kurenai. She pushed a cluster of her silky hair over her shoulder in annoyance.

Naru opened her mouth angrily to retort but was abruptly stopped with a hand on her shoulder. She tensed, clamming up with the memory of her dream.

"I don't appreciate you questioning my teaching abilities, Yuuhi-san," came a cheerful voice. The well-endowed kunoichi froze, eyes widening fearfully. She imagined a flash of red.

"K-Kakashi-san..."

Naru spun around, all tension leaving her her body. "You're late!"

"Maa, Naru. You see, I was just heading over when I found a lost sheep roaming around Konoha and had to help it find it's friend and lead it to the right place!" Kakashi replied. Naru raised a skeptical brow; he had never used sheep before in one of his excuses. "But forget that. Naru, where are your teammates?" His voice held a hint of annoyance.

"I wish I knew, Sensei," she growled out, pulling at her hair.

"You were supposed to meet up with them this morning, were you not?" This was said with a sigh.

"What-?"

"Good thing I found them though, waiting at the usual training ground," Kakashi continued on to proclaim. His articulation was followed by the appearance of two pissed off boys.

"You gave me no such directions," Naruto fought back. Why couldn't today just be peaceful for once?

"What do you think I meant by go out to breakfast with them, Naru?"

The jinchuuriki could feel the stinging heat of an embarrassed blush claw up her neck. The feeling only intensified when Sasuke turned a sizzling glare her way. Even Shikamaru looked excessively annoyed. Naru peeked at the other onlookers; some were snickering at her blight while others looked respectfully away.

What the hell?! Kakashi should have been clearer than that if that's what he had wanted! He made it sound like a suggestion, like she had a choice, and she's obviously choose not to follow it!

A guttural growl released itself from between her lips, and she glared right back at Kakashi and her two teammates. They were all assholes.

A clearing of the throat. Naru looked up at the sound, her back turned to the rest of her team in defiance. "Well..." Asuma started awkwardly, "now that everyone's here, I can explain the rules of the match." From his pocket, the jounin pulled three red flags each emblazoned with a number: seven, eight, or ten. "We're going to be playing some Capture the Flag!"

His cheerful voice rang through the tense clearing, completely out of place with Team Seven's atmosphere. Asuma could only think that, if this was an inkling of what he was supposed to help fix, it might be harder than he thought.

**So yeah! Tell me what you thought (especially about all the information I put in here)! there's this cool button down there that says review..? xD hahaha but also, I was just wondering... who's your favorite Naruto character? Like, who would you want to see more of in my story, because when I thought about it I was actually EXTREMELY curious! lol either way, hope you enjoyed this, especially since I'm going to have to spend another hour typing up everyone's name to thank them... (oh lord... please...)**

**Special thanks to my new followers/favers :) : Pearlstone (especially special thanks to you for faving/following me!), Apollo27, Honest Lunar Raven, Bluebird208 (just realized you followed, then came back to fav... thanks Hun :D), Pixxiee, AkatsukiMercy1515, yuki-onna-yuri-Yum, One lost in a Crowd, somename, fated slayer, NinjaGirl9797, (thanks to you especially as well! ;D), Olinn, mightyreader, Skilvh and Shilvh, Princess Akasha, Throy567, Dragon-of-Chaos, **

**And thanks to my best friends everrrrrr (aka loyal reviewers!): PoeticNonsenseNinjaStyle, Yuri-Hime-Chan, ArinaSugarBaby (though you didn't comment on chapter 11, you did review on some of my older chapters without recognition! sorry!), Crazydoglover, and My-Broken-Destiny :)**

**You guys are all great and loyal and AWESOME! :) Hope you enjoyed the story and perhaps you wanna leave me a review? ;D there's 71 of you followers (you guys are awesome! *tears up* and 60 of you faved!) but only 30 reviews :(**


	13. A Sneaky Steal

**Sorry my present is a day late, but its still wicked early! ;D I figured you guys were always so good about waiting for my updates I'd truly hash this one out... It's only the beginning of the exercise, but we'll get to the fun kickass part next ;D I hope you guys like it... I'm really trying to get a hang of the whole fight scene thing, but I'm seriousy sitting on the edge of my seat to hear what you think...**

**Also, on that note, somebody just unfaved and unfollowed my story the other day, which I understand, but what saddened me was that I didn't recieve any feedback as to WHY they did so. If you see anything wrong with my story or have critiques or anything that would drive you to unfollow ****Contracted****, I would really love to hear the reason so I can improve my writing and story telling skills. Please and thank you.**

**Koby out!**

***Don't Own Naruto***

Asuma nervously handed Kakashi the flag labeled with a seven, saying, "Apply chakra to the seal on the back and we can talk about the rules." Kurenai, on the opposite side of the clearing, followed his directions immediately. With a poof and a flinch from Sakura, the read flag multiplied into three separate entities: a blue, yellow, and red flag. The only civilian born ninja stared at the flags in wonderment, snatching her set of flags from Chouji.

"Woah…" started Kiba, his eyes widening in awe. "Is that…?"

Naru, still scowling in front of her team and ignoring their presence petulantly, stated forlornly, "Fuinjutsu. It's fuinjutsu, Dogbreath." A breeze of air behind her told of her sensei's release of the seals on their flag.

Kiba's mouth split open to display a sharp-toothed smile. "Cool."

Still observing the artifacts in her hand, Sakura breathed out, "Asuma-sensei, I didn't know you were proficient in seals!" The pinkette flipped each flag over in close scrutiny as if she could unlock the secrets of the technique only by looking. Naruto scoffed lightly; only an Uchiha could accomplish that, and with pink hair Naru severely doubted that lineage.

Walking back to stand next to his team, Asuma sheepishly admitted while puffing on his cigarette, "Actually, Kakashi is a lot better with seals than I am…" Naru resisted the urge to straighten her back and smile proudly at her brother's compliment.

She forced a scowl and crossed her arms for good measure. Daring a peek at the people behind her, Naru quickly regretted the decision when the famous Uchiha glare planted itself in the middle of her forehead in coordination with Nara's own angry furrowed brows. Kakashi himself seemed to ignore her, though he was definitely annoyed.

Well if they were going to mad at her, she'd stay mad at them, damnit.

The atmosphere of tension only grew thicker and Asuma faltered a moment before beginning again, "Ahem… well, like I said earlier, the exercise is going to be a modified game of Capture the Flag. Each team of genin will have three flags—one blue, one red, and one yellow—that they will be in charge of guarding. On top of this 'protection detail,' you will attempt to steal as many flags from the other teams as possible. If a team loses all three flags with their number, they are effectively 'killed,' understand?" Upon seeing the nods of all present genin, Team Ten's sensei took another drag of his cigarette. He closed his eyes happily as smoke entered his lungs, scorching his throat.

However, Kurenai quickly ended his bliss by stealing the cancer stick from his mouth with a frown. She continued on with the explanation, concluding, "In the end, the genin team with the most flags wins. Us sensei aren't allowed to interfere, though you all have until four in the afternoon to complete your objective. Questions?" She paused for a few seconds, allowing the new information to sink into the pre-teens' heads. She smiled at the serious looks on her team's faces, mirrored ruthlessly by Team Ten as well, including Sakura. She didn't bother taking a peek at Team Nine, knowing that they still wore irritated glowers. "Good."

Naru attempted to quickly assimilate the parameters given and construct a decently flexible plan like her academy sensei told her to, but her mind was pulling a blank. By the time Kakashi swept by her to stand with the other sensei, her plan consisted of running around like an idiot punching anything that moved. Currently, she was extremely frustrated with her lack of brains.

When she heard Kakashi's voice, her ears perked up and her attention was successfully drawn. "You all will be given a half hour to plan and hide your flags accordingly before being allowed to search for other teams." He stopped his speech for a moment to direct his stare specifically at Naru, his one slate eye blazing into her two blue ones before continuing, "And remember, it's easier to overcome obstacles when there are others to help."

Naru's eyes narrowed at the barely concealed message for only her. Kakashi definitely wasn't helping with singling her out. Her stubbornness and defiant nature sowed seeds for that.

"That said," Kakashi finished, eye-smiling at his team, "good luck! Your thirty minutes start…now!" The three jounin disappeared with a puff of smoke similar to the seals on the flags.

Team Ten stared at Team Eight who stared at Team Seven who glared at themselves. And then, with the passing of a bird in the sky, the three teams disappeared into Training Ground Eighteen's trees.

_B_R_E_A_K_

Although they all ran to the same area for cover, the air among the three genin of Team Seven was expectedly tense and obstinate. This time, even the infallible Nara Shikamaru was too annoyed to act civilly, or in his usual fashion, pretend to be asleep. Instead, they all sort of glowered at each other in silence.

Each child refused to speak first to break the quiet muffling them. Sasuke wouldn't even look in either of their directions, instead settling for a random spot in the trees. If Naru didn't know any better, she would've swore that the leaves on the ground would pick up a spark and burn under the blaze of his eyes.

Seconds ticked by and minutes swung across them like a pendulum, chronically bleating away with insignificance to their mindsets. The whole idea that they were limited to thirty minutes of planning was lost on them, muddled in their messed up team chemistry.

With a sigh of frustration, it was the resident genius who spoke first, "Alright, we need a plan. And Naru, at least try not to sabotage us, will you? I don't know what the hell your problem is you crazy idiot, but you don't have to be such an ass as to leave Sasuke and me for-"

The Uzumaki's hand came up like lightning, flashing across Shikamaru's face with a resounding crack as skin met skin. The Nara could only stand there frozen at her strong response. Not only had she defied her patterns of not touching people that he'd been tracing, but he had never taken Uzumaki Naru to be a slapping kind of girl. She seemed more fit to thrown a hardy punch than an emotional slap.

It only took him a few seconds to realize his mouth was open like a gasping fish before closing it soundly. The same nagging annoyance that always accompanied girl flashed up his neck again in a flustered blush.

"Fuck you Nara," the blonde panted out heavily, as if the movement of her arm up to his face had taken all her energy. She choked a little on her breath, causing Shikamaru to flinch minutely, before she continued on with a cruel tone. "I have a plan, yeah? I'll take one flag and you and Sasuke can take the other two." When neither of the two boys answered her, she finished the argument with a final, "Great," before snatching the red flag out from Sasuke's outstretched hand and stomping off into the woods away from the two.

Sasuke smirked with approval, shoving the yellow flag into Shikamaru's confused face. He, too, then left their impromptu meeting place to wander off in a random direction for their exercise. The blonde idiot had actually initiated exactly what he wanted. His dysfunctional team was absolutely useless, he noticed, since they refused to work together as they had against Kakashi. Like this, the obvious choice was to go alone without them holding him back. Now all he had to do was find Sakura's team and steal the weaklings' flags. Easy as pie.

Left alone in the clearing was Shikamaru, once again being the unmoving member of the team as the others took impetus. At first he wanted to grind his teeth together in rage, but then a thought came to him. If his teammates seemed determined to fail this test, why should he try? It was far too troublesome. He should actually be glad that the two troublemakers had finally left him alone to sit down and do nothing, just as he liked.

And that's exactly what he did. He lay down on his back, and watched the cloudless sky. Shikamaru sighed, back to normal.

_B_R_E_A_K_

Her eyes flit to the left and the right before she started forward. With a small inkling of extra caution, she halted her movements long enough to look upwards towards the canopies of the trees. All clear.

Slinking closely to the ground, the orange-clad ninja belatedly realized how horrible orange was to hide in forests without backup, but she simply couldn't find it within herself to care. She didn't care about her team, she didn't care about her "sensei," and she sure as hell didn't care much for this mission right now. Her bastards of teammates deserved to be failed at the moment.

"Though," she mumbled to herself, "Shikamaru would probably be happy if he could get out of this without doing anything, win or lose. Hell, he'd be happier if we failed! Less training."

Nibbling nervously on her lip, Naru dashed across the open clearing with all the speed she carried, hoping to get across without a possible ambush. By the time she reached the other side safely, ambushes didn't seem to be the hot thing in this particular clearing, her heart was beating harshly.

Shikamaru. Pain flashed through glassy eyes as her vision blurred with unshed tears. It wasn't like she meant to make them wait! She seriously thought that Kakashi's letter was a mere suggestion; it really seemed that way when she was reading it. Her teammate definitely went too far, and the damned Uchiha didn't even say anything! The stupid pineapple head definitely deserved that slap, in her opinion at least.

Naru gasped, bringing herself to a standstill, a small hand covering her mouth in fear. She_ slapped_ him! What if her emotions messed with the seal and she poisoned him just like she poisoned the Hokage and Kakashi and Inoichi and-!

_Snap!_

Running purely on instinct, Naru's small body twisted away from the mesh of wires that appeared underneath her feet. Scrambling away from the swinging net, she warily perused the trees surrounding her. She couldn't see anyone, though that didn't say much with all the trees. And she definitely didn't sense anyone, her chakra sensing skills as shot as her chakra control. She could only hope the other teams had split up to cover ground and that a foolish one would attempt to trap her by themselves.

Oh who was she kidding, that folly was unique to her team and her team only. That left two choices: Team Eight or Team Te-

There! Sliding a kunai knife from her pouch, Naruto's eyes followed the thin shadow sliding across the ground and trees to where it stopped at her two o'clock. With a deep breath, the girl hid the direction of her eyes by pretending to wipe sweat off her brow. She only needed to flicker her gaze in order to acquire her enemy's identity and position. Yamanaka Ino, sixty-eight degrees to her right, roughly ten feet up.

Team Eight it was.

A rueful smile graced Naru's lips as red danced at the edges of her vision. Maybe she could release some of this bone-crushing stress with a nice tussle. And if she got a flag while at it, it could serve as ammo to show Kakashi that she was a competent ninja on her own strength.

Tensing her muscles, Naru breathed serenely out before spurring into action. She let her kunai fly, swinging her arm out with all her might so that the weapon was on the verge of becoming a blur. Naru smirked knowing that the kunoichi wouldn't be able to dodge.

"Watch out, Ino!"

Naru hissed in annoyance when the Inuzuka jumped in front of the projectile, deflecting it from his blonde teammate's way. She was hoping to fell one of the three before they ganged up on her, but that just wasn't her luck. She glared at Kiba, her smirked down at her, sitting on the branch in front of Ino.

However, wherever there's an Inuzuka human, there's always an Inuzuka mutt. So where was the little bugger…?

Pain spiked in her ankle as the white mongrel shot from the bushes on her right to latch onto her. Its fangs dug in deep into her skin and Akamaru held there. Naru comically swung her leg around in an attempt to dislodge the dog from her person.

"Now, Hinata!" Naru heard Ino yell from above in the trees, a rustle signifying either her departure from the branches or Kiba's. Perhaps both.

Eyes widening with panic, she realized they were going for a pincer attack. The girl's vision bled red and her skin burned.

Naru roughly kicked Kiba's partner from her leg and placed her hands through a sequence. Ram, boar, ox, dog, snake. "Kawarimi no justu!" she yelled out, back pedaling from the Hyuuga heiress' swift flurry of attacks. In a large poof of smoke signaling the excess chakra used, Naru was replaced with the dull sheen of a kunai knife falling to the ground.

Hinata's pupiless eyes widened in surprise at the speed with which Naru switched, stopping to search for her. Kiba paused in his run as well, previously en route to flank his old schoolmate.

"Where is she!? She kicked Akamaru…"

"W-well in her def-defense, Kiba-kun, Akamaru-chan d-did bite her first…"

The duo's eyes still roamed the forest greedily during their tense banter. Then, Hinata's mouth opened in comprehension. There was no longer a kunai knife in the tree where Kiba deflected it. "Where's Ino!?"

"Oof!"

The short haired girl turned to look at the Yamanaka's previous perch with her teammate running to the spot. However, neither could find a trace of the blondes, let alone a scuffle between them.

"Shit!" Kiba yelled, hopelessly sniffing the air for scents that roamed around him, "Ino is weakest with taijutsu, Naru is going to destroy her!" The dog boy circled the tree Ino was sitting upon a couple times before a limping Akamaru joined him in their search.

"Byakugan!" Kiba belatedly glanced at his teammate, veins popping around her eyes with throbbing chakra. "Kiba-kun!" she called out, a rare authoritative tone permeating her voice, "They're eighty degrees to your left, and Ino isn't winning!"

With a somber nod, Hinata only used her confident voice when something was really wrong, Kiba bolted left according to her directions. It only took half a minute to find the grappling females rolling on the forest floor, each bloodied in their own right. Kiba could only smirk at the havoc Ino caused to Naru's body.

It didn't take long for that triumphant expression to fall, though, when Kiba took notice of red-purple splotches littering his teammate's skin. The boy sure didn't know what the hell the marks were, but by the flinches and hesitancy in Ino's movements compared to Naru's calm and purposeful wrestling, he did know that whatever they were, it wasn't good.

Swooping in, Kiba and Akamaru endeavored to kick Naruto in the side, satisfactorily taking note that her side was trashed with multiple shallow scratches. Only, Naru's swift reflexes squashed that idea as she rolled off Ino and scuttled onto her feet. Her breathing was heavily labored, as was Ino's.

Luckily, Kiba's intervention allowed the platinum blonde to get back to her feet and allowed Hinata to catch up with her team, leaving Naru at a disadvantage of three versus one.

"Damnit, Naru," wheezed Ino, her arms convulsing infinitesimally, "you need to get your shit under control."

Naru found her eyes slowly directing themselves toward her childhood friend's face. Hinata gasped into a cupped hand.

Standing in front of them, Naruto's eyes were red rimmed. The blood vessels in her eyes were conspicuously scarlet, encircling her iris in a thin circumference. Kiba could only imagine it as being painful, and Hinata tapped her own eyes as if to confirm they didn't mirror the Uzumaki's in front of her.

"Yeah…Sorry about that Ino," Naru's voice came out forced and gravelly, as if something was trying to prevent it from escaping her throat. "I just…panicked. You know I've never been good at holding back."

Both Hinata and Kiba looked at each other, confusion blazoned onto their faces.

"Keep it in check or else they'll send you to Dad again," Ino warned, leaning against Kiba in her weakened state. Her eyes held a tinge of pity that Naru didn't want to see in her pale blue orbs.

"Ino! You-your chakra! Its ex-expanding!" Hinata gasped, turning her gaze to her teammate. Ino only grinned mysteriously in return. None of Team Eight saw Naru's face turn into a pained scowl at that comment.

Ino spoke up, watching for Naru's movements, "I think its best we retreat for now. We still have three or so hours before this is over." Curiously, her voice wasn't defeated or upset. Kiba and Hinata looked at their stubborn counterpart as if she grew another head, not believing her request to back down. The Ino they knew would never allow such a thing!

And the Ino Naru knew wouldn't allow it either. But even though Naru's nerves were on high alert, her guilt when looking at Ino's previously pristine skin and the knowledge of the incoming pain convinced her to stand down. When the three of them plus Akamaru disappeared from her sight, Ino riding on Kiba's back, she withheld the urge to pursue. That, on top of the fact that when up against all three genin of Team Eight she had no chance, held her back. Honestly, she counted herself lucky that they didn't insist on a drawn out, full-fledged brawl.

Instead, she watched their backs as they melted into the trees.

Naru fell to the ground with a groan. Her entire body felt as if it had been electrocuted with a raiton jutsu and if she wasn't able to see at that very moment, she would've been sure that her eyes had been plucked out with a pickaxe. At least her skin wasn't bothering her with yearning, being replaced with pain instead.

Her world was tinted a rosy pink that was slowly fading. Is this what it felt like when she forcefully fought off her temptation after she already gave in? She quite preferred the satisfied thrum of her skin after it had its fill…

Naru shook off the dregs of wooziness and confusion that followed her high in time to calm herself down for the pair of ninja sandals that stopped in front of her.

"You look like shit, Uzumaki."

"Yeah, well you don't look too hot yourself Sasuke." Naruto smiled despite herself, splitting her healing cut lip and spilling fresh blood into her mouth. She spit it out crudely. "Did they actually attack your pretty-boy head?" This lead to a chortle bubbling from her.

Sasuke scoffed, refusing to sit down next to his teammate. He looked away into the trees for a few seconds before admitting, "They took my flag." When he didn't receive an answer, he extrapolated, "Team Ten." Naru couldn't figure out his thoughts, as the Uchiha survivor had simply said the words as unbiased fact. He held no anger, somehow.

Hoping that her appearance was mostly back to normal, the scratched up girl turned towards the Uchiha's face. His eyes contained more life than she ever remembered. They were blazing with competition and redemption, though without the malignant sheen of revenge. They held a fighting spirit she truly could admire. "Team Eight just confronted me as well, though I thoroughly won that battle." When Sasuke's mouth tilted down with frustration, she relented, "Well, mostly beat the crap out of Ino before they retreated. I never actually went against their entire team."

Sasuke nodded in recognition. "Where's your flag?"

Naru smirked, reaching underneath her headband on her thigh. "It's right…here?" Her hands came up empty other than her hitai-ate. Naru scampered onto her feet despite the painful protests in her muscles before circling the spot she was sitting on several times like a dog chasing its tail. As she finally stopped her ministrations, gaping at Sasuke with the most defeated look a girl could ever make, Naru could have sworn she saw the bastard smile at her antics.

"That sly bitch! That's why she called a retreat!" Naru screeched angrily, feet rampaging in aching steps so that she could pace. A petulant pout was set prettily on her annoyed face.

"Well well. Looks like dear Naru has lost her objective as well," Sasuke teased. If Naru wasn't so angry, she would have been gob smacked by the notion of Sasuke joking around, but at the moment her rage took precedence. _Ino_ tricked _her_! The queen of tricks! The growl tearing through her throat wasn't pretty or nice.

"So we're down two flags, with one flag being the thing that separates us from failure," Sasuke lead on suggestively. Naruto couldn't believe what he was implying. Not just because of the violent altercations that had been ripping into their genin unit, but because it was Uchiha Sasuke of all people who was saying it. Chouji must have hit him too hard in the head somewhere during their fight.

"There is no way I am working with that douche bag!" Naru hissed, scandalized. She lurched back from her teammate as if physically stung by his suggestion.

A steely look from Sasuke was all it took to freeze her in place.

"Listen Uzumaki, I don't know what happened between the two of you, but get the fuck over it. Kakashi told you that we'd need to work as a team to get stronger and, while I know I'm not the best person to be saying this, I'm not adverse to using the tools given to me to reach my dream as long as they're useful!" Sasuke ranted, frustration barely concealed in his voice. "Believe me, I hate the notion of asking you idiots to help, but you've both proven useful to me somehow. And I refuse to fail this annoying test so that Kakashi can use it as an excuse to make us run more fucking laps."

"Sasuke," Naru began defeatedly, her gaze averting to anywhere but his determined figure. When she thought about Shikamaru's and hers fight, it was hard to put into words how it had upset her without coming off as a sniveling brat. He had insulted her by simply scoffing at the idea of having a person who cared for him, something she had begged for as a child and only received by the Hokage's order. Nobody had wanted her. Nobody had looked for her after dark or made her eat right or worried about her. Kakashi arrived eventually, but could he truly replace the shadow her missing mother left behind? Him ignoring his mother's care was like degrading everything she ever worked and wished for. It was as if her purpose was insignificant and childish. But who doesn't want a family? "I can't work with someone who doesn't understand..."

"No one can understand you, you confusing baka. All you do is sit there and yell at us, without even allowing Nara or I to get a word in edgewise," Sasuke sneered. "You're supposed to be my rival, as you constantly shouted at the academy, but I refuse to acknowledge you as such if you're so infernally stupid and holding me back!" By the time he was finished, Sasuke was panting up a storm, his eyes blazing with aggravation. Naru could only stare on, once again baffled by her usually stoic teammate's outburst.

It didn't take long for the swelling of pride, however, to usurp her confusion. Of course she was his rival! She had completely forgotten in the haze of anger at her pineapple headed teammate. If Sasuke was willing to overcome his abhorrence of group activity to get stronger, then she could not and would not allow him to jump ahead of her, even if it meant saying sorry to a bastard. After all, if she wasn't there to knock the Uchiha down a peg, who would?

"Fine, teme! Jeez, I get your point… Besides, Kashi would kill me if my stubbornness is the reason for us losing to weaker opponents!" Shaking off her previous resolve of not caring about the exercise, Naru smiled cheekily with a new resolution. "We'll beat their asses, Sasuke! I give my word! And Uzumaki Naru never breaks a promise, believe it!"

**So it's a little rough around the edges... and I'm sorry for that, but I really wanted to get this chapter out to you all before my break was over! I hope you enjoyed it all :)**

**Thanks to my one and only newwwww follower! Jake A Lara :) you are great for reading through my annoying chapters, so thank you!**

**Special thanks to my loyal reviewers who got to the last chapter in time before this post as well :) Crazydoglover (and yes, you get another mention in this AN as well! hahaha), PoeticNonsenseNinjaStyle, and Yuri-Hime-Chan! you all mean alot to me, and give me thedriv to continue writing this fic despite my worries about it, so thank you so much.**

**Once again, I hope you liked reading this story!**


	14. Bound

**Bleh. That's hello in tired. ;)**

**Hahahaha just kidding, I'm actually quite awake! Still, you guys should be happy that this is being put up! I kinda ignored some very serious school projects to type it up... in fact after writing this I'm off to work on my senior thesis on Shakespeare cause, you know, I'm that awesome.**

**But seriously, I was debating scrapping this entire chapter and instead rewriting the entire story, afterwords deciding I couldn't do that to all my hard work xD I think this chapter was... ok? I don't know if the feelings seem a little rushed or out of place, so feedback on that would be great (as well as the usual fight scene, yeah). Either way, I hope you guys love this chapter!**

***Naruto Not Mine***

After her outburst, Naru quickly found Sasuke's company to be a lot more boring than she expected. And let's just say she expected a typically boring atmosphere.

The air was tense because the simple reason of Sasuke being the general ass he was didn't make any attempt to start up or continue a conversation with her, his teammate. Said Duck-butt was angry in response to his unnaturally good-willed speech, as if he had to make up for the small sign of camaraderie with a big heaping pile of douchebaggery. And then she was bored because he was boring and she refused to think about the fact that she'd be signing away her pride—irrational, stupid pride—by coming to terms with Shikamaru.

She refused to scowl at his name. If this was going to go down, where she worked it out with him, it would probably be best that Naru started mentally preparing for it now. Meaning no frowns just because he was on her mind.

Naru flinched as her knee brushed up against the side of a tree. Her skin was still extremely sensitive; the rubbing of her clothes even sent constant stinging sensations down her body. Every muscle movement was like a bee sting, her proprioceptive sensors frayed and burning. Well, the pain was more like a dull buzz in the back of her mind, dutifully reminding her that her body was protesting anything she did, but that didn't change the fact that each step simply _hurt_. Luckily, at least, the pain seemed to be dying down little by little. At first it was like acid burning through her veins.

Naru stole a glance at her wary teammate, several feet away. She didn't feel any urges to touch him. She didn't feel the need to make any contact for the first time in a long, long while. Was the pain blocking out the sensation? Or was the pain a result of lack of the sensation? Either way, thinking about it was making her brain hurt.

Instead, she simply kept her distance out of precaution. Ino was already covering for one mistake; she couldn't afford another.

How far was the stupid jog back to Shikamaru anyway? She had no doubt that the lazy bum hadn't moved from the spot where they began, just like their genin test.

A squirrel dashed by, rustling the leaves in the brush causing Sasuke's muscles to tense in preparation for an attack. He was probably this paranoid due to the fact that his precious dignity was stolen along with his flag. He couldn't exactly claim to be invincible when _Sakura's_ team beat him. No offense to them, Naru conceded, as Chouji and Shino are both strong genin and Sakura's brain's aren't anything to scoff at, but where was the high and mighty Uchiha now?

Naru snickered.

Flickering his eyes crossly in her direction, Sasuke sneered, putting a lone finger to his lips to tell her to keep quiet. As if anyone could keep Uzumaki Naruto quiet.

"So how did Team Pinky utterly destroy you anyway, Teme?" Naru conspiratorially whispered. This only earned her a growl. His face twitched, and Naru just couldn't help herself. He was too amusing when he refused to bite back. "Did Chouji throw his chips at you as a distraction? Or perhaps Shino sent his scary, scary bugs at you so you screamed and begged them to take the flag like a little girl!" Naru's guilt at demeaning her classmate's was put aside in favor of the horrid red color trapezing up the Uchiha's cheeks. However, his quiet footfalls remained steady in their light thumping and Sasuke's mind was still zeroed in on solely finding their third defunct teammate in favor of finishing this stupid game. Likely to puff up his feathers again at being top dog. More than likely to merely get away from her and her pestering.

"Oh! I know... Sakura was finally able to seduce you! You know, good for her! I'd love to see some pink haired Uchiha babies running around in the future-"

"STOP RIGHT THERE UZUMAKI!" Naru was pretty sure his face was turning a beautiful shade of plum purple right then. The survivor's body was rigid except for his chest, heaving at his outburst.

Naru looked at him with feigned shock. "Sasuke!" she admonished, "you need to be quiet! Kami, they could hear us!" And there it was, her signature foxy grin back on her face like it belonged. The murderous look on Sasuke wasn't a detriment on her rising mood either. Boredom officially alleviated, she trounced right by him and even risked a light shoulder bump. With the lack of burning and tickling, she smiled blithely. She felt free. It was a good feeling.

"I swear, one day I will kill you." He grudgingly followed her lead and continued on.

With an even bigger smile, Naru retorted glibly, "Big words coming from a man defeated by a little girl with pink hair."

Unfortunately for the blonde, Sasuke had already retreated to his Uchihadom: "Hn."

Sasuke's unresponsiveness silenced a pouting Naru for a few moments, allowing her to gauge her surroundings. To most ninja, all they would see is trees, trees, and more trees, leading their paths into a dooming labyrinth of foliage with no markings. However, to a Konoha shinobi's eyes, the environment was like reading a three-year-old's picture book. The outcropping of moss to her left, which slowly became more common the further Naru looked, showed signs of a river outside of her sight. The fact that the trees surrounding her and Sasuke were getting darker and darker in their green hues was a distinct sign in Konoha that they were going away from the Hokage Mountain, the slight decline in the ground solidifying the fact. The small prints of rabbits that veered away from their path told her that denser woods lay in that direction.

Naru fondled a scroll on her hip tenderly. And if she ever needed more precise information, she always had her map, as basic as it was.

_Snap!_ Sasuke froze, his foot crushing a dry branch. The sound seemed ungodly loud in the more quiet part of the training ground they were in. His fingers inched in onto utility pouch, skittish eyes jumping from place to place.

Naru let out a long sufferable sigh, kicking a small pebble in his direction. "You know Sasuke, it doesn't matter whether they hear us or not. It's not like either of us have a flag they could get. We should just hurry up and find Shikamaru, so he doesn't lose his as well." She paused. "Wait... How do we know Shikamaru hasn't been robbed already, too! Sasuke, we need to hurry!" the girl screeched, preparing to bolt into the depths of the training ground before Sasuke's aggravated voice stopped her.

"Well, we were both attacked by different teams, meaning Shikamaru hadn't been targeted yet," was the growl rumbling from his throat. Naru heaved a sigh of relief, opening her mouth the praise whatever god was in the sky but was again interrupted by her prodigy of a teammate, "However, you _screaming_ out to the world that our last flag is with an unguarded Shikamaru, I wouldn't doubt Shino or Kiba or Hinata even to be tracking him already!"

Naru fell comically, faceplanting into the forest floor and eating a pile of twigs. In a quick recovery, the hyperactive girl propped her torso up to yell, "Well how was I supposed to know that, Teme? Hurry up!"

"How did you graduate as top kunoichi again? Obviously it wasn't your intelligence that got you there."

Naru gave the boy the deadest stare she could manage before she scrambled up, zooming towards their missing third teammate with Sasuke hot on his heels. Flying through the wind, Sasuke could hear Naru's angry answer. "'Cause my awesome ninja skills couldn't even be compared to those other sissies in our class!"

Despite the speed that they were going, Sasuke found the time and energy to roll his eyes at his idiotic comrade. He severely doubted her claim, while she was fast (faster than him even, he grudgingly admitted) and had monstrous stamina, her movements during a fight seemed more inclined to dodge than actually attack. And then when she did initiate the offensive, something that took the verbal beating from Kakashi to accomplish, her style was jerky and wild. Almost as if she had never really sparred before and was afraid to hurt her opponent. In fact...

"Uzumaki, how did you pass without any taijutsu training in the academy?"

He may be no genius like the Nara (what they hell was with his team and being better than him? _Nobody_ should be better than an Uchiha...), but even he could see the panic flitter across the girl's face and deduce that it was a sore topic.

She remained silent for a while, simply running forward with nothing but the crunch of the leaves. Sasuke didn't think she was even going to answer him, but Naru surprised him when she did, albeit quietly. "That's something we need to talk about as a team." The serious furrow in her brow kept him from prodding her further. Besides, it wasn't really important to him anyway, just a curiosity.

Naru clenched and unclenched her fist while stealing a sad glance at Sasuke. It was great to be free from the tantalizing want of contact. She could only wish it stayed this way.

It wasn't long until they reached Shikamaru's clearing. Luckily they found the lazy boy sleeping, surrounded by unperturbed grass. He still hadn't been attacked... yet.

With a glance at each other, Sasuke motioned Naru forward with two fingers as he himself jumped up into the canopies. Well obviously the jerk thought it was her job to wake up the lazy bum. The good mood from before quickly dropped.

Frowning, she shakily approached her sleeping teammate, knowing that the levelheadedness she felt at the moment was conditional. What if it came back with proximity? When they were running she was a good two feet from Sasuke, but to actually _touch _someone? It was quite apparent how that worked out with Ino, and she even had a slight resistance.

A foot away. Naru gulped guiltily, sweat dripping down her brow and hands trembling. She reached out, fingers trembling with nerves.

"I can do this," she whispered to herself, primitive whine escaping her throat. Inching closer and closer, she repeated these words as a mantra, wide eyed with uncertainty. She could feel the faint heat radiating from his exposed bicep. She had to calm her erratic heart, even her breathing. With a calm breath in and out, she pleaded again, "I can..."

Naru gasped airily, her hand resting against Shikamaru's skin. He was tanner than she had thought, her own sun-kissed skin pale in comparison. Wonder flooded her eyes at the feeling. He wasn't Kakashi or Jiji or Yamanaka-san, but she wasn't infecting him either. She smiled goofily, eyes crunching up and transforming her face into the likeness of a fox.

His skin was warm. Kashi's hands were always so cold when he'd touch her; she'd begun to suppose that everyone was that cold. A tiny smile twisted at her lips, fingers tracing tiny circles on the exposed area of the arm. If only…

"Hurry up you Baka!"

Naru's hand froze as her ears picked up the sound of clashing metal. Glancing around the clearing, she spotted Sasuke fighting off a larger than usual Chouji, a torrent of bugs being controlled by Shino, and a blob of pink hair in the trees throwing kunai for support. Team Ten had found them.

Turning back to Shikamaru, She opened her mouth to yell his name when she noticed that his eyes were wide open, staring at her with seriousness lying in their slate depths. He blinked slowly as the battle raged behind them, and Naru felt as if her eyes were locked onto his inquisitive ones. She fought to keep the embarrassment from showing on her face and her hands shook with fright.

Naru gasped, hastily removing her hand from his person. "I-I'm sorry Shikamaru! But we-we need-"

"Naruto watch out!"

It was too late, however. Naru didn't have to her skin's itching to warn her of her enemy closing in, and by the time Sasuke's shout reached her ears, she could see the assailant's shadow descending past her. They were right behind her back. Mentally prepared for the hit, Naru tensed her muscles for the blow.

However, instead of feeling a fist make contact with her head, she felt a hand wrap around her wrist and tug her down. Falling across Shikamaru's torso, Naru could hear a muttered "Troublesome" blowing across her ears.

A red and pink figure landed right in front of her vision, chest heaving. Sakura whipped around to face her with blazing green eyes. "I'll get you next time, shannaro!" She emphasized her battle call by placing a hand on her bicep and flexing it.

Naru quickly pushed off Shikamaru, positioning herself in front of him. With a growl erupting from her chest, Naru challenged, "I'd like to see you try, pinky!"

"Yeah, next time," claimed a lazy drawl from behind Naru. "Sasuke!"

Naru heard a distinctive "Hn!" from the trees in answer.

The lone girl of Team Seven flinched instinctively when she felt a hand grasp her upper arm securely. With a glance back at Shikamaru, Naru distinguished a small nod of his head when he opened hi mouth again. "As team leader, I think I've decided that it's time to regroup!"

With that, Naru felt herself being yanked away from Sakura as she and Shikamaru dashed into the woods once again, Sasuke on their heels.

"Wait right there, you cowards and Sasuke-kun!"

Naru stumbled before scowling. That idiotic girl.

Shikamaru scoffed, "As if we'd wait."

The trios' feet beat brusquely against the ground as the sprinted full-force among the trees. Naru ripped her arm out of Shikamaru's grip gruffly and pulled ahead of the two boys, pausing a short while ahead.

"Baka! We need to keep moving!"

"Shut it Sasuke and trust me for once!" Naru called back, eyeing the two as they stopped in front of her. Heftily sighing, the girl mumbled, "I'll explain later, so please don't ask questions." She met the two confused looks with a sheepish smile, crossing her fingers and yelling, "Kage Bushin no Jutsu!"

When the superfluous smoke cleared, nine nervous looking Naru's shifted uncomfortably before them. All of them, including the tenth, real Naruto, refused to meet her team's eyes. More quietly this time, she called out after a series of simple handseals, "Henge!"

Another explosion of smoke and instead of nine Narus, there were three carbon copies of Team Seven. Creepily looking at the real Shikamaru and Sasuke at the same time, they all bolted off in several different directions in groups of three.

"Let's go now," Naru said, apprehensive smile set on her face. She then followed her clone's lead and ran off further into the training ground.

"How are bushin going to help us, Baka?"

"Those weren't normal bushin Sasuke… Didn't you hear them run off? Bushin don't make sound, and they don't have shadows either," Shikamaru answered critically.

"Then what the hell were they?" When Naru kept quiet, Sasuke prodded again. "What were they, Uzumaki?"

Naru tensed a moment, stopped on a branch, and stared the two down. Her face spoke of frustration, but her voice was oddly calm. "We don't have time for this right now, I'm not even sure it will work." Then she picked up running again, faster this time.

Sasuke inquired, "And why is there a chance of them not working?"

Naru opened her mouth to answer, but was instead interrupted by Shikamaru, "They have her chakra signature only, and Shino's kikachu bugs sense people off their chakra. If Shino realizes that it's only Naru's signature, he might realize it's a decoy." He waited for Naru's head nod for confirmation. When it hesitantly came, he asked, "How do you know the Kage Bushin, though? That's a forbidden technique."

A falter, but Naru kept running. "I told you no questions, right? Ask them after we beat the crap out of Team Ten."

That comment efficiently quieted the curiosity of the two boys, and instead all efforts were focused onto getting somewhere decently safe to plan.

"Naru, this should be far enough," Shikamaru panted after what seemed like forever. They were surrounded by sparse outcroppings of trees and the gentler roar of water indicated a small waterfall somewhere in the distance.

The girl acquiesced and halted, turning to face her two teammates with a determined glow.

"We better hurry, I don't think the decoys worked," she stated somberly. She sent a paranoid look into the forest behind Shikamaru and Sasuke.

The Uchiha 'hn'd and crossed his arms, speaking up, "Well, Nara, neither Uzumaki nor I have our flags anymore while it can be assumed that Team Ten has all three of theirs plus mine."

Naru could have swore she saw Shikamaru's jaw muscle jump in irritation. "So my flag is our last? How troublesome… I vote we give up."

"Oh quit your bellyaching, lazy ass. We just need to two of their five flags to win this thing!"

"Naru, you're an idiot. We need to steal three to beat Team Eight's four," Sasuke corrected smugly.

Snarling, Naru made to lunge at the Uchiha survivor only to be tripped by a bored Shikamaru. If we're going to do this," the shadow-user started, "you two are going to have to stop fighting." Naru pouted at the admonishment, looking away from the two males of Team Seven but staying quiet for Shikamaru all the same. Sasuke smirked, and for a second Shikamaru thought he saw him stick his tongue out at the girl. The Nara blinked, and it was gone. A trick of the light then.

"I can only guess that they did the same thing we did, without splitting up," Shikamaru explained. "One flag per teammate, with the double probably on Sakura."

Sasuke sneered. "Sakura? Why would she have two? She is definitely the weakest of the team."

Shikamaru sighed at his narrow-mindedness, answering as if talking to a three year old, the boy said, "Because it was your flag, she's obsessed with you, thinks she's better than everyone, and Shino and Chouji won't go through the trouble to convince her otherwise at the moment. It's too troublesome, even for them."

"Alright then what do you suppose we do, almighty leader?" The caustic sarcasm dripping off every one of Sasuke's words brought a flinch to Naru, but Shikamaru just rubbed it off, probably with the thoughts that it was too troublesome to retort.

"Simple: we take them each one on one."

"What?!" burst Naru, her face confused and red with exertion from her yell. "You can't be _serious_! The whole point of this was to act like a team, but instead we're splitting up again?"

With a sigh, Shikamaru bequeathed, "I don't know whether we work better as a team comparatively, but if we can separate them into individual units, I'm confident that we are each stronger. It's really just quicker, since we don't have much time to come up with a plan and all. Even though it's much, much more troublesome…"

There was a short silence for thought before Naru muttered, "I really have a feeling I'm going to hate that word: 'troublesome.'"

Shikamaru shrugged in response, and Sasuke took initiative, "Alright, then Nara can fight Chouji, Baka can fight Sakura, and I'll fight against Shino." His voice held a certain tone of rage at the mention of the bug user's name, and Naru could only fathom a guess that he was still angry for being unable to beat him during their last battle.

"Hey! Why is he 'Nara' yet I'm still 'Baka', Teme!?"

Naru's screech went unregistered when Shikamaru rebutted with more serious than they'd ever heard from him, "I refuse to fight Chouji, and I will _not_ fight a girl." That last statement earned him a muffled "sexist" from Naru, while Sasuke snarled.

"Fine then! I refuse to fight Sakura either, so I guess I'm beating up the stupid Akamichi and you're stuck while Shino!"

Naru and Shikamaru were silent in agreement, the former resigned to fighting what she thought of as the weakest of Team Ten. It didn't really matter much to her, she guessed, as long as she was free from the need to touch people. In fact, she thought.

With a silly giggle, Naru sauntered up to Sasuke, a euphoric grin ever so plastered onto her face. Sasuke gazed at her with confusion, and his usually angry scowl. With slow and deliberate movements, her finger came up to the Uchiha's forehead, and she poked him. Right in between the eye brows.

"Boop."

"Uzumaki… I will so-!"

Sasuke never got to finish his angry tirade, because out of nowhere a cluster of shuriken were thrown at the prone Team Seven, who were forced into action. The three of them split up, jumping out of danger and staring down the new arrivals.

Sakura lowered her hand to her side, showing that she was the one who threw them. "Oh Sasuke-kun! I didn't hurt you did I?"

She didn't realize that the insinuation that she could possibly hurt him, the famous Uchiha heir, made him livid.

"We found you quite fast, despite your decoys. How, you might ask? Because I planted one of my females on Sasuke's clothes to track him," Shino analyzed, unmoving from his spot.

Chouji, the last of Team Ten, didn't say anything. Instead he just stared straight at Shikamaru, an ambiguous look in his eyes.

Naruto smiled foxily, crouching down to the ground in preparation for combat. "Welcome to the party, Chouji, Shino, Forehead." Obviously, Naru's intentional use of Ino's favorite nickname for the Haruna had done its job in cajoling her.

As answer, Sakura shrieked, "NARU!" and charged.

Her two teammates attempted to back her up only to be intercepted by the remainder of Team Seven. Naru smirked playfully. They were so going to win.

The pinkette threw a hard punch only to hit nothing but air as Naru swiftly dodged, golden hair trailing. With the tiniest bit of a stumble, Sakura recovered to send another bout of punches Naru's way, each of which was smoothly dodged. Continuing the assault, Sakura shrieked with rage as time passed. She'd throw a punch with all her weight that Naru would deftly move away from only to be attacked again. At the girl's growing annoyance, Naru smiled with amusement, casually slipping on her shobo from her utility pouch. She could end this fast without worrying about hurting Sakura too much.

Angry, Sakura hastily rushed in to attack Naru, sending a high kick at her face. With a smirk, Naru ducked underneath the attack and took advantage of her position and lightly tapped the inside of her leg with her weapon, accurately attacking the pressure point.

Sakura's face contorted with pain and, gasping, her leg gave out from under her as she tumbled to the ground. Naru crouched next to her smugly, taking great delight in the ability to poke her while Sakura attempted to stand back up. Naru was happier than a ninja returning home; her skin wasn't incessantly bugging her and she had the chance to beat the snot out of someone without worrying about it. The moment was quite therapeutic. After the fourth or so poke, Sakura thrashed out, only causing Naru to laugh out loud.

"Naruto! I'm going to get you for this you bitch!"

The blonde in question snickered openly, saying, "Yeah I know Sakura, I know." Naru sent her a cheeky wink as she plucked the the flags labeled with a 7 and a 10 from her utility pouch. "Not very well hidden, was it, Pinky?" However, Naru's sly grin slowly switched into a confused frown when Sakura began to smile with triumph. "What are you so happy about? I just beat you?"

Then, for the third time in the past hour, Naru heard the shout of warning from Sasuke.

"Baka! They're after Shikamaru's flag, remember?!"

Wide eyed, Naru's hair sailed like a curtain as she twirled to face the laziest member of her team. And there he was, held tightly in Chouji's strong arms and hugged tightly to his chest. The Akimichi left no room for Shikamaru to move his hands to initiate jutsu let alone escape.

"I'm sorry about this, Shika, but we're on a mission right now!" Chouji said, a saddened look present on his face. The swirls on his cheeks drooped depressingly. However, his eyes held a solid semblance of determination.

Naru could see Shikamaru attempt to shrug, yet fail miserably. It didn't keep him from saying his next words though, "Eh, troublesome things happen sometimes Chouji."

She gulped nervously at the scene, whisking her eyes quickly to check on Sasuke, Naru saw him struggling to get through Shino's clan jutsu

The blonde was baffled. How did Shikamaru end up going against his childhood friend in the first place? Hadn't they planned for him to fight Shino?

"We knew Shikamaru would refuse to fight Chouji, so we convinced him to detain your team leader as precaution. Besides, Shikamaru has your third flag, right? We now have three, and you only two," clarified Sakura, to Naru's frustration. Damn, she thought angrily. Shikamaru must not have put that thought into consideration.

Teasing her bottom lip with her teeth, Naru glanced from Sasuke's fight and Shikamaru's predicament. What should she do?

Apparently, she must have said it out loud because Shikamarus shouted, "Hey Uchiha, how you fairing?"

A grunt of acknowledgement resounded from Sasuke as he dodged another torrent of bugs, springing backwards on one hand. "I'm fine."

After confirming that Sasuke was, in fact, fine, Shikamaru looked directly at Naru. "Remember Naru, our goal is to win."

The jinchuuriki leisurely beamed, confidence proliferating through her being. "Whatever you say, taichou!" Rapidly crossing her fingers, a hasty yell of "Kage Bushin no Jutsu" was yelled and the area where the Uzumaki was standing faded in smoke. Shino faltered for a moment to look at the curious scene before Sasuke descended on him, forcing him onto the defense.

Chouji squinted his eyes in an attempt to see through the haze, but failed royally. Instead he compensated with squeezing his friend tighter to his chest.

_Poof!_

"What the…?" Chouji looked down only to find smoke in his grasp.

"Gotcha!" An orange blur burst from the dispersing cloud, running towards the plump boy like a bullet. Shikamaru, on the other hand, darted from the smoke in the direction of Sasuke to aid his other teammate.

With a grin, Naru pulled back a fist which, in addition to the momentum of her run, would be one doozy of a blow if it landed. Still, Chouji was an Akimichi.

When she was close enough, Naru let loose her punch with a battle cry, aiming directly for the boy's face. Chouji lifted his hand with extraordinary speed for someone his size, catching Naru's tiny fist in his meaty one. Grunting, Chouji braced the arm that was holding Naru's fist with his other hand and flung Naru's body right over his head, slamming her orange-clad body into the ground with enough force to break a citizen's ribs.

Naru ignored the stab of pain and lifted her body of the ground with both hands, swinging her legs around in a circle before kicking them none-too-gently into the boy's ankles. When Chouji stumbled, Naru took advantage of the opening. No longer having to worry about any weird side-effects that went along with contact, Naru popped up, jumping from the ground, planted each hand on Chouji's shoulders, and used his body as leverage to lift hers up so she faced the other way. When she was directly above his head, little clumps of hair tickling her arms, she swiftly flexed her back backwards in a curve, speeding up her momentum and swinging her bent knee in an arc aiming directly for his stomach. When Chouji began to waver, taking ginger steps back, Naru then pushed off him and dug her knee in deeper to swing off him and perform a back hand spring away from the big genin. Landing in a crouch, the blonde observed the fruits of her handiwork.

She grumbled annoyed when she took in the fact that, despite her quick attacks, Chouji was still standing and only looked a little shaken. This guy was a freaking tank! How was she supposed to take him down? Cautiously reaching for her shobo, Naru watched Chouji for a counter. And boy did she get one.

Chouji face her with a scrunched up, half pouty half angry face that was set on every angry Akimichi's face before an irate assault.

"Um, guys? I hate to sound like a damsel in distress… but I think I need some help over here."

And of course neither Shikamaru nor Sasuke came to her rescue.

"Well shit."

Exploding with a terrifying yell, Chouji charged at Naru head on. Screeching, Naru quickly formed handseals for the Kage Bushin no Jutsu and summoned three clones into existence, only for two to be smashed to smoke two seconds later by the mad ninja. Naru and the last clone looked at each other with horror before veering hastily away from the swinging battering rams that were Chouji's arms.

"Kami Chouji! Why are you so angry? It's not like I called you fat-!" Naru choked on her words once she realized her mistake. When the enraged roar of pure unadulterated hate erupted from the usually sweet boy's throat, Naru could only cry to herself, "Dear Kami, why did you make me so stupid?!"

In an attempt to launch a counteroffensive attack, Naru lead Chouji towards a tree before using her speed to climb up it for a few steps before flipping off and over his head again, this time kicking him in the back and smashing him into the tree's trunk.

The large bang made Naru flinch, almost feeling bad for the boy. Keyword: almost. That sentiment was quickly driven from her mind as Chouji flipped around to grab her wrist and fling her sideways into the tree she just launched off. Luckily, her clone read the situation and called out, "Kawarimi no Jutsu!" switching the original's body with their body in sacrifice. Naru cringed at the horrid memory released into her brain with the dispersing of her clone.

He turned on her, his pupils beady and small and primal. "I'll show you what fat really means Uzumaki!"

A comically large amount of tears slipped from Naru's eyes as she attempted to dodge all of Chouji's punches. Every time he landed a hit, even if it was just a clip of his knuckles or arm, Naru's body burst with pain.

"Come on, Chouji," Naru tried to reason, spinning around his outstretched hand as he attempted to punch her, "we're friends aren't we?!" The last few words were emphasized with a cuffing of his ear at the end of her spin that disoriented him for a few seconds.

Naru jumped back a few steps and sighed with relief. Distance was exactly what she need right now. She strategically used this time to spy on Sasuke and Shikamaru, who were locked in their own bout of violence against Shino and just as busy as her, if not fairing much better.

"Bastards…" she whispered ruefully.

She recognized the fist that was flying straight for her shoulder just in time to catch the heavy blow with her own hand. She could have sworn she heard her wrist crack under the pressure. However, she wasn't given any time to ponder the pain because soon after Chouji's other hand came flying as well, and catching that one was even worse than the first.

Naru spent the next few seconds grappling with the large and horrifyingly strong genin in front of her. And she hated to admit it, but it was a battle she was losing. Gritting her teeth, Naru pushed with all her might, leaning every ounce of power and strength into her arms in an attempt to overpower Chouji, but she only got trembling and numb arms in return. And the worst tingling sensation that she encountered almost on a daily basis.

Naru's eyes widened in panic and she could feel the surge of chakra zipping up her arms leaving and electrifyingly numb. She knew she would have to act fast to minimize damage. She _knew_ that it would come back!

Biting her lips so hard it bled, Naru let go of Chouji's hands while simultaneously backpedalling. Unfortunately, in the midst of her retreat, Chouji found the energy to send a nice strong punch straight to her gut, sending her soaring across the field with moan as she crashed against a tree.

Touching tender ribs, Naru hissed in pain as what appeared to be three chouji's approached her, each of them swaying back and forth. Oh wait, it was she that was swaying and it was her grogginess that caused the multitude of Akimichi's. Naru endeavored to inspect his forearms, make sure no splotches found home there, but the effort to concentration make her groan in pain. The throbbing behind her ears just got worse.

"Chouji," Naru choked out, wincing with pain, "d-don't come… an-any closer… please…" She could feel in the back of her consciousness the Kyuubi doing its best to fix her injuries and what she felt confident diagnosing as a concussion, but Chouji was advancing too fast to recover and dodge another attack. Had the Kyuubi's chakra slowed along with her wooziness?

Whatever, the answer was moot at this point. She just needed to convince Chouji not to touch her, to stay a good, decent space away…

Yet, without her prompting, Naru found her hand lifted up and reaching towards the boy's face, begging for the same contact her mind dreaded. "No," she croaked quietly, struggling to gain control once again, "I can't do this! He's my friend! I don't want this!" Her voice wheezed out weakly, but for some reason Naru felt as if her body was out of her control, like she was only floating inside her mind separated from the physical world.

"But this is exactly what you want, Imouto, isn't it?" a voice purred, surrounding her. Naru was certain that she had heard it somewhere before…

Closing her eyes, Naru pondered. Where was it coming from?

"Chouji, stop. The exercise is over."

She knew that drawl anywhere.

"Shikamaru…?"

Cracking an eye open, Naru noticed Shikamaru binding Chouji in place with his shadow, muttering a strained, "Kagemane no Jutsu, complete." Not only that, but Sasuke was standing directly in front of Chouji, kunai at the ready and crouched low to the ground in case of attack. Grinning from ear to ear, Naru struggled to stand up, most of her pain and dizziness consumed by Kyuubi's familiar healing heat that ran through her veins. There were times she owed a lot to the furball, she guessed.

Gaining her balance with the aid of the trunk she was previously leaning against, Naru smirked at the two in front of her. "Thanks for the save guys," she mumbled, limping towards them. Oddly, her skin had once again quieted down, leaving her with peace.

Wrapping and arm around Sasuke's shoulder and using him as a support, Naru mumbled, "Where's Kashi-nii…? You said the exercise was over, right?"

A low growl rumbled in Sasuke's throat at the intimate contact, but a sharp look from Shikamaru silenced him. "I don't know. Where Kakashi is or whether it's over or not." Sasuke gruffly informed, rolling his shoulder uncomfortably under her weight.

"M'kay," Naru replied, taking a deep breath. "By the way, we still need to talk."

"Oh yes we do, Naru," Shikamaru answered, still straining under the uses of his clan jutsu. "Saskue, can you just knock him out?" Shikamaru snapped, causing Sasuke to give him a deadpan look and proceed to throw a sharp blow to Chouji's neck. Chouji crumpled to the ground and Shikamaru flinched, watching as his best friend fall unceremoniously to the ground.

Sighing in relief, Shikamaru had energy to grumble out, "Sorry buddy" as he filched the flag from under his headband. He then turned towards the half-asleep Naruto and the ever-annoyed Sasuke. "Let's move."

Nodding, Naru untangled herself from Sasuke's side to stand next to Shikamaru, who eyed her warily. With a bob of his head, he took off at an easy pace, he on her left and Sasuke at her right. Luckily she was mostly healed and only fighting off the dregs of grogginess now, though she still tripped up every now and then during the run. And whenever she did, Shikamaru would reach out and catch her, letting her readjust her balance before setting off again, at a slower pace.

"Good place as ever," Shikamaru declared, though the place was obviously not the best place to rest.

"Kami Shikamaru, I'm not a doll. I can keep going until we find a better place to wait out at. This place sucks, right Sasuke?"

"I think it's a fine place," Sasuke asserted harshly, sending a small glare her way.

Naru glowered right back at him, relenting to Shikamaru's unspoken demands and slipping to the ground.

"So, you said we were allowed to ask questions," Shikamaru probed, watching Naru's mouth twitch downward in a frown.

Still, she answered valiantly. "Yes"

"And you'll answer all of them?"

She gulped, peering pleadingly up into his eyes. At this point, even Sasuke lookced interested.

"If you insist on it being answered, I'll consider it."

For some reason, Naru felt like she had sealed her fate with he two boys in front of her.

**Soooooooo... is this what is called a cliffhanger? xD I was going to include the whole Q/A with the team in this chapter, but it wasn't coming out right so I decided to present you guys with only this for now and bring in the secrets (somewhat) next chapter! I hope you guys are slightly peicing together what is wrong with Naruto to at least postulate on what it is... either way I hope this was to your satisfaction ;) especially the relationships and fighting... I wanted to cower when writing some of it TT^TT but yeah, thanks for reading!**

**Special thanks to my new followers/favs: Pearlstone (literally realized I mentioined you already, but I sent you that awkward PM anyway and so I felt like I'd mention you again anyway? hahaha) Silently Watches, user of the internet, Crystal-Rose-Lover, spyrkle, and shycheyenne! You are all great, thank you so much ^^**

**Super, Awesome, SPECIAL thanks to the reviewers! Mr/Ms Silently Watches, I can only say that I am proud to have you review! I looked at your profile and I mus say... your a guru of HP fanfiction xD Maybe one day I'll get around to reading that fanfiction again :) PoeticNonsenseNinjaStyle, my loyal buddy :) I'm so glad to hear that your liking my Ino/Naru interactions xD And I'm sorry to hear about that :/ ****Skilvh and Shilv: you two honestly pushed me to re-examine my story and actually got me more on track with future chapters :) I'm honestly greatful for the critisism you provided and will try to grow off it *bows* And my dear bud My-Broken-Destiny! I love you ;D thank you for the confidence in my writing and cheering me up and just liking my story :) *heart* (only time I'll be going that in depth with reviewers... THANKS GUYS!)**

**Hope you enjoyed the read!**


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